Fever Pitch

School is back in session in Ventura County, but many students are still out--stuck at home with high fevers, achy joints and nasty gastrointestinal problems.

And parents and teachers can expect the hard-to-beat virus to stick around for a while. Medical experts predict that the virus tearing through schools, families and local emergency rooms will linger--in one form or another--through March.

At Saticoy Elementary School in east Ventura, attendance clerk Kathy Zavolosieck said close to 20% of her students are out--much higher than the normal rate of 5%. And most of that, she says, is due to a nasty flu strain.

“Most of the notes that are coming from parents, it’s high fever, stomachache, colds,” she said. “Yesterday, probably the first four hours of school we sent home four students with over 100-degree temperatures. It seems like when it hits them, it really hits them.”

At Cesar Chavez Elementary School in Oxnard, close to 25% of the students are absent, and at nearby Norma Harrington Elementary School, 55 out of 500 students were out Monday.

“I’ve been making calls on absences, and almost everyone I have contacted said their kids have cold, cough, flu or fever,” said Josie Portillo, attendance clerk at Norma Harrington.

Added Elena Tanguma at Cesar Chavez: “Everyone is calling in saying they have the gripe”--the flu.

But although the virulent flu virus cut into attendance at many schools in the west county, school officials in the east county said the epidemic had largely run its course.

Doctors throughout Southern California say the flu is the worst they have seen in years, if not decades.

Patients coughing, hacking and battling high fevers continued to jam emergency rooms across the county. At Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, hospital beds are still full, said Executive Director Michael Bakst. The usual patient count is 165, but the head count continues to be “well over the 210 level.”

Hospital officials countywide said last week that the holiday season--during which people pass their germs along by hugging, kissing and shaking hands--is a culprit in the rise in wintertime illnesses.

But Bakst said that with children back in school, the virus could spread even more quickly.

“It has the potential of making it slightly worse,” he said. “It is passed by contact . . . so playing at school, playing ball, dancing, all of that contributes.”

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Although everyone is vulnerable to the virus, it is often children and older people who are hit the hardest.

But calls to dozens of schools revealed that high schools and middle schools are being hit just as hard as elementary schools.

“It’s hitting families,” said an attendance clerk at Ventura High School. “The parents are as bad as the kids. All the parents calling in can barely speak.”

Cat Estrella, attendance clerk at Balboa Middle School in Ventura, said absences are now down to about 108 in a student body of 1,240 students. But before the holidays, the numbers soared to 150 absences a day--and hovered there for more than two weeks.

“We had to come in during vacation to catch up on entering all the absences on the computer,” Estrella said.

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At Lincoln Elementary School in Ventura, children crowded into the nurse’s office Tuesday afternoon.

Maegan Burman, 10, who has been sick for the past two weeks, held an ice pack on her aching ear. Seven-year-old Jasmin Thind sat with a disposable thermometer in her mouth, clutching her stomach.

“It hurts,” she said. When the health assistant asked if she wanted to go home, Jasmin said her mother is sick, too. “She was throwing up,” she said.

Although the flu did not seem to discriminate by age, it did seem worse in western Ventura County, at least in recent weeks.

Most schools in the Conejo Valley and Simi Valley unified districts reported normal absentee rates for this time of year, with a few exceptions such as Glenwood Elementary School in Thousand Oaks.

“Monday was our highest day [of absent students] this year and today it looks pretty much the same,” said Glenwood Principal Pam Chasse on Tuesday. “I’ve even had a few teachers down because of it.”

At Moorpark’s Arroyo West School for third- to fifth-graders, 300 of the 747 students were out during the four weeks before winter break, said Jan Ion, the office manager who also takes care of attendance roles. And at Campus Canyon School in Moorpark, classes of 20 students often had six to eight out with the flu, said Principal Linda Bowe.

But both schools said absences due to the flu have subsided since students returned from the holiday break.

“I think we’re normal now,” said Theresa Williams, principal of Flory School in Moorpark. “They went out earlier in the season, but now they’ve had time to recuperate.”

For those schools that have had a high absentee rate, starting the new semester has been hard, with some teachers reluctant to begin new lessons with so many students out.

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“It definitely makes it more difficult,” said Glenwood Elementary’s Chasse. “It interrupts the students’ education, and we have to work around that.”

She said parents have been picking up assignments for their children so they do not fall behind.

Teachers at every grade level encourage parents to call schools to get homework and missed assignments--particularly if their children will be out for more than a day.

“If parents think it will be a two-or three- or more day absence, they can request homework,” said Jack Smith, principal of Nordhoff High School in Ojai, where 200 students in a student body of almost 1,200 were out Monday, 75 with the flu. “Within 24 hours, we can get them all the homework they need during that time.”

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He said if parents are uncertain how long their child will be sick, the best thing to do is overestimate.

But despite high absentee rates, statistics show that the incidence of flu in the county is not near epidemic levels, said Lin Glusac, the immunization coordinator for Ventura County Public Health.

She recommends that people wash their hands and cover their mouths when they cough. If people get sick, they should stay home and drink lots of fluids, such as noodle soup and juice.

“Stay home and get well,” she says. “People can’t afford to do that, so then they go back to work and reinfect everybody.”

Hilary MacGregor is a Times staff writer, and Coll Metcalfe and Robert W. Selna are correspondents. Correspondent Regina Hong also contributed to this story.