Rania Baghdadi, a mother of two elementary school students, has chosen to home-school her children until she is sure about the disappearance of the H1N1 flu. However, five days after the beginning of the back-to-school season, Saudi schools have not recorded any cases of swine flu. Noura Bint Abdullah Al-Fayez, Deputy Minister of Education, recently undertook an inspection tour of a number of schools as well as special education institutes and health units in several provinces. “The recent tour was to oversee the plans in this regard that have been implemented and other general preparations to provide to students and teachers in the new education year as well as completion of training and equipment to contain the H1N1 flu,” said Mohammed Al-Dukhainy, a Ministry of Education spokesman. “I am so worried about sending my children to school they might catch the contagious disease that I will rather home-school them instead of sending them to school at the present stage,” Baghdadi said. On the other hand, some parents think that the flu can be treated and if proper steps are taken, the students can be saved from any disease. Ghada Hassan, a mother of five, said “I will send my children to school no matter what; I think that they can catch the flu from anywhere and isolating them is not the solution. I will follow our Prophet's advice by giving them honey and seven black seeds,” said Ghada. However, Azza Almehdar, sociologist at King Abdulaziz University, assured that swine flu could even affect those who are home-schooled because it can spread through maids, drivers or any other person's visits to homes. According to Rawaia Abou Bakur, a doctor in Al-Aziziya Maternity Hospital, “taking the right precautions will help in treating the H1N1 virus as with any normal flu.” Hanaa Mohamed, an intermediate schoolteacher in Makkah, said “I have canceled the whole idea of sending my daughter to the kindergarten school this semester because I think putting her life at risk is not worth it.” “I can understand about the parents' concern about their children catching flu but I don't believe that wasting even one school day for their children is the solution because they still can catch the flu at home,” said Dr. Rawaia. Although efforts of the Ministry of Health in trying to prevent the flu from spreading are in full swing, many parents don't agree to give their children the flue vaccination due to its perceived side effects. Samar Radain, a mother of a 5-year-old girl, said “I will go with my daughter to the school on her first day and I will also make sure that I write a consent letter that prevents the school to give the swine flu vaccine.” According to the Ministry of Health officials, the number of swine flu cases in Saudi Arabia, and the number of deaths are firmly within the global average.
