School Nurses on the Front Lines of Healthcare: Infectious Diseases Popularized in the News

Abstract

School nurses may deal with students presenting with symptoms associated with infections popularized in the news. Although rare, the implications of missing or misdiagnosing these infections are potentially life-threatening and devastating. We present three students presenting with febrile illnesses associated with neurologic symptoms, a rash, and fatigue, focusing on the initial assessment and management of these students and their associated “hot topic” infection. The authors also discuss two public health organizations, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/) and the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/), online references for the school nurse to research both emerging and common infectious diseases.

Keywords

acute flaccid myelitis measles coronavirus infection

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References

American Academy of Pediatrics. (2019). Acute flaccid myelitis in children. Children and Disasters: Disaster Preparedness to meet children’s needs. https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/Children-and-Disasters/Pages/Acute-Flaccid-Myelitis-in-Children.aspx

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019a). Acute flaccid myelitis. https://www.cdc.gov/acute-flaccid-myelitis/afm-surveillance.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019b). Measles (Rubeola). https://www.cdc.gov/measles/hcp/index.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

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