How to prevent illness in school:
- Teach children good personal hygiene
- Reinforce everyday precautions
- Install air purifiers
- Invest in room sterilizers
As the new school year approaches, so do the challenges that come with accommodating students in the new normal. In previous years, we’ve all noticed that the school year brings about increased cases of sniffles and coughs. Now, the danger of that rises as our kids are at risk of even more serious illnesses.
There’s no secret formula to keep kids from getting sick ever, but there are steps you can take to reduce the risk and better prepare your facilities for the start of classes. Here is our guide on how to prevent illness in school.
Why is illness a common problem for kids at school?
It is, unfortunately, because our students are confined in close spaces for long periods. This keeps them exposed to germs, viruses, and bacteria — which linger in the air, on classroom desks, and door knobs.
These pathogens can cause infections such as influenza, bacterial infections, stomach flu, pink eye, the common cold, fevers, and the like.
Attending school, while important for our children, exposes them to the risk of these conditions. This is especially concerning for younger children, whose immune systems are still fragile.
That’s why schools need to take proactive precautions this coming school year. Here are our top recommendations:
Teach children good personal hygiene
First, make it a point to teach your students about good hygiene habits. This is especially important for younger children.
You should cover the following lessons:
- Regular and thorough hand washing to prevent the spread of germs.
- Regular use of hand sanitizers.
- Proper etiquette for sneezing or coughing (i.e. covering their mouth and nose with their hand, tissue, or hanky).
- Avoid touching their eyes, nose, and mouth.
- Avoid sharing personal items (such as cups or eating utensils) with friends.
Doing this regularly should help reinforce the habit of following good hygiene practices.
Reinforce everyday precautions
Next, you should remind your students about the best practices for keeping safe in public spaces.
As you prepare to welcome children back into your classrooms, make sure to reinforce the everyday precautions through daily reminders, posters, and the like. You should also remind them of why these practices are so important for their health.
These precautions include:
- Social distancing should be followed even if students are vaccinated. This is because viruses easily spread from person to person — primarily between those who come into close contact with one another.
- Wearing a mask. This helps contain any potentially infectious sickness from being spread while breathing, talking, and coughing. Masks should help in situations when social distancing is challenging.
- Washing hands, and other personal hygiene practices. Daily reminders and encouragement should help your students be more conscious, and turn these practices into habits.
Install air purifiers
When students stay in their classrooms, the chances are that viruses, germs, bacteria, and other pathogens are building up in the air around them. So you must have a way of filtering out potentially contaminated air.
The best way to do that is with a HEPA air purifier. These machines improve air quality by capturing and killing airborne pollutants, toxins, and particles. They essentially sterilize the air, which helps prevent illnesses like allergies, asthma, colds, and even viral infections like COVID!
When looking for the right HEPA air purifier for your school, always look for one with the right technology and credentials.
We recommend those with multiple filters aside from a HEPA-grade one, such as Aluminum pre-filters and Activated Carbon filters. Using one with multiple filters helps target more types of air pollutants, and ensures cleaner air overall.
Another thing to look at is the appliances’ Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR). You want something with a high rating, as these can effectively clean the air in larger classrooms or common rooms with ease.
One great example is our Supreme Plasma UV-C Air Cleaner! It has an extremely high CADR of 2716 m³/h, plus a 10-stage filtration system. This allows it to eliminate up to 99.9% of all airborne pathogens — including COVID — and supply clean air for rooms up to 325 m² big! It’s the perfect model for just about any room on your campus.
Invest in room sterilizers
The usual wiping down and cleaning methods are no longer enough. You need another, more powerful way of disinfecting all surfaces around your school.
This is where our UV room sterilizers come in. They use UV-C light to sterilize all surfaces — both porous and non-porous — in a matter of minutes. This is effective against all kinds of potentially harmful microorganisms!
Through our state-of-the-art UV-C technology, you can eradicate all the bacteria, viruses, mold, mildew, fungi, and other pollutants that gather on the tables, chairs, desks, and other surfaces after a busy school day.
Devices like our UV Care Shield 150 are a great option for you. This device cleans so well that it’s medical-grade and used in hospitals and clinics! It’s also chemical-free and environmentally friendly, so you don’t have to worry about it leaving toxic residue.
Simply wheel this device into an empty classroom, set the timer, leave, and wait for a few minutes. Once its sterilization cycle is done, all the surfaces within that room will be completely germ and virus free!
Key Takeaway
Protecting children from sickness is important, now more than ever. Use our guide on how to prevent illness in school to ensure that your facilities are ready for your students to safely learn.
To get the best results, work with UV Care. Our products are the best partner you’ll have in germ protection — they offer the best features in the market, and are all backed by lab-proven results. Also, our products are highly-recommended by DepEd, DILG, DOT, DOH, and DTI to ensure the best air quality for your home or building.
Send us a message today to get started. Our in-house team of experts will be happy to work with you to choose the best sterilization solutions for your building!