United States: South Dakota is on track to establish new records regarding influenza cases and hospitalizations, where schools were hit hard, particularly by winter illnesses.
The decision to close the entire district for one day was made by Menno schools superintendent Kory Foss after several students became sick, followed by the sickness of additional teachers in late January.
Rising cases of illness
The number of flu cases in the state reached its highest point during that timeframe, so Foss planned to send students and personnel home early on a Friday to obtain maximum recovery time.
According to Foss, whose district of 45 employees and about 260 students is located in Hutchinson County, about 30 miles north of Yankton, “We cleared out the buildings to give everybody a chance to go home and get healthy,” keloland.com reported.
“Our whole area around that time, there was a number of schools that were hit hard,” he added.
State Department of Health statistics show elevated infectious disease case numbers have occurred throughout the entire state during the 2024-25 winter period.
South Dakota exhibits flu data at its two-third point of the nine-month flu season, with 19,600 flu cases, 1,079 hospitalizations, and 28 deaths from influenza.
South Dakota shows indications of breaking its yearly record for cases and maintains the highest hospitalization count on record for influenza.
South Dakota state epidemiologist Joshua Clayton explained to News Watch about the unusual disease occurrence in 2024-25 that includes COVID-19 alongside influenza along with norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and pertussis (whooping cough).
What more are the experts stating?
As per Clayton, “I won’t say that it’s kind of a perfect storm, but I just know there is a lot of respiratory disease happening in South Dakota right now,” keloland.com reported.
The combination of numerous students with multiple adults at educational institutions provides a perfect environment for disease transmission because students remain inside together during cold conditions.
Extremely dry air conditions during the January and February cold spells enabled viruses to hang longer in the atmosphere and increase their transmission possibilities, according to Clayton.
The state recorded 2,450 COVID cases together with 56 pertussis cases on February 11, which poses a higher risk to children.
The DOH website fails to provide information about the number of RSV and norovirus cases reported in the state.
Furthermore, “It appears COVID cases peaked in early January, but I can’t say that we’ve peaked yet for influenza because we’re at a very high level right now,” he noted.
“And then on top of that, you have pertussis and a lot of other respiratory viral infections,” he continued.