• Daphne L Copeland, Ricardo Basurto-Davila, Wendy Chung, Anita Kurian, Daniel B Fishbein, Paige Szymanowski, Jennifer Zipprich, Harvey Lipman, Martin S Cetron, Martin I Meltzer, and Francisco Averhoff.
• Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. dcopela55@gmail.com
• Clin. Infect. Dis. 2013 Feb 1; 56 (4): 509-16.

BackgroundFollowing detection of pandemic influenza A H1N1 (pH1N1) in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, a school district (intervention community, [IC]) closed all public schools for 8 days to reduce transmission. Nearby school districts (control community [CC]) mostly remained open.MethodsWe collected household data to measure self-reported acute respiratory illness (ARI), before, during, and after school closures. We also collected influenza-related visits to emergency departments (ED(flu)).ResultsIn both communities, self-reported ARIs and ED(flu) visits increased from before to during the school closure, but the increase in ARI rates was 45% lower in the IC (0.6% before to 1.2% during) than in the CC (0.4% before to 1.5% during) (RRR(During)(/Before) = 0.55, P < .001; adjusted OR(During/Before) = 0.49, P < .03). For households with school-aged children only (no children 0-5 years), IC had even lower increases in adjusted ARI than in the CC (adjusted OR(During/Before) = 0.28, P < .001). The relative increase of total ED(flu) visits in the IC was 27% lower (2.8% before to 4.4% during) compared with the CC (2.9% before to 6.2% during). Among children aged 6-18 years, the percentage of ED(flu) in IC remained constant (5.1% before vs 5.2% during), whereas in the CC it more than doubled (5.2% before vs 10.9% during). After schools reopened, ARI rates and ED(flu) visits decreased in both communities.ConclusionsOur study documents a reduction in ARI and ED(flu) visits in the intervention community. Our findings can be used to assess the potential benefit of school closures during pandemics.

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