Flu outbreak shuts down San Francisco high school

A San Francisco parochial high school was closed Wednesday after a wave of gastroenteritis, or the stomach flu, hit a large portion of the student body, according to school officials.

St. Ignatius College Preparatory, located at 2001 37th Ave., sent more than 90 students home Tuesday after they became ill at school. About 50 students had already called in sick Tuesday, school principal Patrick Ruff wrote in a letter to parents posted on the school's website.

Ruff said the school has been in contact with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, who advised school officials to sanitize the entire building.

Extra cleaning crews have been called in to sanitize the building, Ruff said, which prompted Wednesday's campus closure. All campus events were also canceled, according to the letter.

As of Wednesday afternoon, at least three athletic events involving teams at the school were postponed following the school’s closure, West Catholic Athletic League officials said.

A boys' basketball game between St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory that was scheduled for Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Sacred Heart was postponed until Monday, WCAL commissioner Ed Ravenscroft said.

The only game that was scheduled on the St. Ignatius campus that day was a boys' soccer game against Junipero Serra High. That game was moved to Thursday at 3:15 p.m., said Kevin Donahue, the league's sports information director.

A third game, a girls' basketball game between St. Ignatius and St. Francis High School scheduled for Thursday in Mountain View, was also put on hold, according to the school's website.

The school's girls' soccer team was scheduled to play at Notre Dame High School-Belmont at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday but it was not clear as of noon that day whether that game was postponed.

Classes and campus activities were expected to resume Thursday.

The letter advised parents with sick children who may be suffering from stomach flu, to keep their children at home for at least 72 hours after fevers have lowered and vomiting or diarrhea has stopped.

The principal wrote in his letter, "We are confident that through these measures we will get healthy very soon."

San Francisco Department of Public Health spokeswoman Colleen Chawla said city health officials were advising St. Ignatius on the care of sick children and how to best sanitize the school.

"We're working with the school on cleanup," she said. "Given our advice, they didn't think they could get it done overnight."

Chowla said the cleanup would be extensive because of the various surfaces that had to be cleansed, including carpets.

She said the illness was believed to be viral gastroenteritis.

The school's website listed 1,444 students enrolled at St. Ignatius, with approximately two-thirds of the student body involved in school-sponsored athletics.