State provides swine-flu videos for parents, educators

The state's health and education agencies have produced online videos to help inform parents and educators about how to prevent the spread of the highly contagious H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu.

The Virginia Department of Education, in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Health, has released "H1N1 for Parents" and "H1N1 for Educators."

One of the recommendations in the videos is for educators to have the most up-to-date information on the virus, and for parents to make sure schools have accurate contact numbers to reach them during the day.

The videos also reiterate that students and staff members who feel ill need to stay home until they're fever-free for at least 24 hours.

The state has asked school systems to post the link to the videos on their Web sites and is encouraging them with e-mail notification systems to send the links to both videos directly to parents and employees.

Henrico and Chesterfield counties' school systems have the links up on their Web sites. Hanover County and Richmond school officials said they plan to post the links on their Web sites as soon as possible.

The videos are available at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/health_medical/influenza/index.shtml.

Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or .