Half of school's roll hit by mystery virus

Yesterday, 420 of the 992 pupils at Thurso High School in Caithness were off with flu-like symptoms. Another 155 youngsters from the 850-pupil Wick High School and half the roll at the 43-pupil Watten Primary have also been hit by the bug.

Highland Council education officials have called in health experts to investigate the outbreak, although no school is being closed at this stage.

NHS Highland is arranging to take swabs in the hope of identifying the bug, which so far appears to be confined to pupils.

John Inkster, Thurso's rector, said: "I've not seen anything like this in my 16 years at the school. It seems to be hitting only the younger generation. There have been no teaching staff off. I don't know what is causing it.

"It's causing quite a bit of disruption. With only about half the pupils in, it's difficult to teach, and we are trying to keep things going as best we can."

The outbreak became widespread on Monday, when about 380 pupils were off sick at Thurso High.

A council spokesman said: "Due to the exceptionally high level of absence, we alerted public health experts to see if there is any action we should be taking to ensure the wellbeing of the pupils. At the moment there are no plans to close schools, but we will monitor the situation."

Pupils have been complaining of symptoms similar to flu, with high temperatures, headaches, coughing and sore throats.

Dr Alison Brooks, a Thurso GP, said: "At this time of year you get a lot of people with bugs, but I've never seen numbers this vast.

"People all have the same symptoms. It's not several bugs; it seems to be the same thing."

Dr Brooks added: "Until we do the tests we cannot confirm what kind of virus it is. Isolating it is one thing and doing something about it is another."

Dr Eric Baijal, NHS Highland's director of public health medicine, said: "Flu-like viruses are liable to be self-limiting. Investigations are being made to identify the cause of the illness."