Breaking the Cycle of Norovirus Transmission

Flu virus

The flu, strep and norovirus are all serious illnesses that can quadruple student absence rates. Routine hygiene and disinfection can help to mitigate the threat that these illnesses pose. ABM helps to promote better hygiene standards and cleaner schools to cut down on absences and create a safer learning environment.

How do you fight a triple threat of flu, strep, and norovirus that quadruples student absence rates? With a team of custodians empowered with the resources and training needed to quickly and safely enact protocols to protect learning spaces.

Hamilton County Department of Education is home to 79 schools and over 40,000 students. When monitoring triggered attention to dramatically increasing absences across the district, custodians stepped up to the next level of our disinfection process. Once ten schools showed 60 or more students out per day, a district-wide campaign was initiated to break the cycle of transmission.

Multiple disinfection methods were dialed up. Every surface in every school was fogged with an electrostatic disinfectant. Each restroom was pressure washed with disinfecting foam every night. Thorough and repeated attention to surfaces throughout each school shut down infection vectors, but that was only half the story.

Routine hygiene is also key to controlling outbreaks by shutting down person-to-person transmission, so ABM supplied extra hand sanitizers and paper towels to help school nurses and district leaders support regular hand washing.

After one of the hardest hit elementary schools saw 100 students absent over just five days, our custodian’s campaign to control the virus outbreak brought that school’s absence rate down to 15 after just one week. District-wide, one week after our custodian’s first initiative, the student absence rate for Hamilton County Schools had returned to pre-outbreak levels.

info.abm.com/School-Planning-Norovirus-LP.html

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Understanding the Training of School Resource Officers

    SROs are now integral components of nearly every educational system in the country. But instead of being a more passive entity in schools, they have gradually become mentors to students, adding to their support network of teachers, parents, coaches, and other caring adults.

  • Craig Gaulden Davis Architecture Announces Merger with PBK

    Craig Gaulden Davis Architecture (CGD), based in South Carolina and Maryland, recently announced that it has merged with PBK, the largest K–12 architectural firm in the U.S., according to a news release. The firm will operate as Craig Gaulden Davis | PBK with 31 offices across the country.

  • Minnesota High School Completes $226M Addition, Renovation Project

    White Bear Lake Area High School – North Campus in White Bear Lake, Minn., recently announced the completion of a $226-million renovation and addition project, according to a news release. The district partnered with Kraus-Anderson for the project’s construction, which involved creating a single high-school site for the White Bear Lake Area School District.

  • Active Learning Classroom

    Striking a Balance: The Keys to Renovating Science Education Buildings for the 21st Century

    The recent renovation of the Durham Science Center at the University of Nebraska-Omaha (UNO) provides a roadmap for facilities managers tasked with balancing budget constraints, modern pedagogical demands, and long-term sustainability.