Two Scottish schools have been hit by suspected outbreaks of the norovirus sickness bug.
Some pupils at St Modan's High School in Stirling and Cockenzie Primary School in East Lothian have experienced vomiting and diarrhoea, symptoms of the highly contagious virus known as the winter vomiting bug.
Forty-five children and two staff members are understood to have been off with the bug since the symptoms at the primary school first emerged on Wednesday.
Local reports in Stirling suggested that more than 100 pupils were hit at St Modan's but health officials have not commented on the numbers affected.
Both schools, which are being deep cleaned in places, remained open as usual.
A spokeswoman for NHS Forth Valley said: "Following an outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting at St Modan's High School in Stirling, extensive deep cleaning at the school will continue throughout this weekend.
"Many pupils have chosen to stay away from school but with a near-full complement of staff, lessons are continuing as normal.
"Any pupil who feels unwell should be kept away from school and those who have been ill should not return until 48 hours after symptoms disappear."
She added: "Diarrhoea and vomiting is a common, self-limiting illness with many cases currently affecting the community at large; it was therefore felt appropriate that the school should remain open."
Professor Alison McCallum, director of public health and health policy at NHS Lothian, said: "We are monitoring cases of norovirus circulating in the wider community, including a suspected outbreak at Cockenzie Primary School.
"The Health Protection Team at NHS Lothian have issued letters to parents with information and advice and are keeping in regular contact with the school, which remains open as normal."
The health boards advise that frequent and thorough hand-washing, along with disinfecting surfaces, can help reduce the spread of infection.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel