Mystery bug keeps children out of school

A mystery bug which has kept hundreds of children away from a community college has spread to other schools, a county council said today.

It was hoped that swabs and blood tests taken from some of the pupils, now being examined by health experts, would pinpoint the identity of the flu-like virus.

The bug first struck last Friday at Fowey Community College in Cornwall, where today 506 of the 1,100 pupils were away, from yesterday's absentee peak of 523.

Pupils were returning to school but others were falling sick, said a Cornwall county council spokesman.

The number of absentees among the 55 staff had risen from eight to 11, added the spokesman.

The bug had also spread to Polruan primary school, where 15 of the 51 pupils were absent, and at Biscovey primary, where 49 of the 300 pupils there were absent.

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Health Authority said the symptoms were of a flu-like illness with fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, aching muscles or joints and sometimes nausea.

The authority said it expected tests to show the problem was a "common virus".

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