As students return to school, many are wary about the spread of influenza among the school population. Someone with the flu is able to infect others for up to seven days, and schools across the nation are closing down.

So says an article on USAToday.com, which highlights advice from doctors and experts about keeping children safe in schools. When it comes to flu season, Michael Jhung, a medical officer with the Center for Disease Control's influenza division, said that "it's too soon to tell how particularly bad it will be."

"Right now because of the high volume of flu cases, we are experiencing long wait times and we've got some limited availability right now," said Russ Dailey, physician assistant at Summit Medical Group in Tennessee in the article. "We tell our patients to assume they are contagious until their symptoms are essentially gone. The fever is one thing that people tend to mark that by."

According to the article, "Alcoa City Schools in Tenn., closed down several weeks ago because of a large number of students with the flu or flu-like symptoms."

Brian Bell, the director of schools, said "there was a 'general cleaning' over Christmas to help disinfect," said USAToday.com.

"The most important thing was that no one was there. So that should have helped," Bell said.

According to the article, "health experts said if your child is experiencing any symptoms, you need to keep them at home."

"Be aware of the needs of other people," said Darci Hodge, director of infection control at East Tennessee Children's Hospital in the article. "Your child may have the flu and may not act all that sick. But they can affect another child or their teacher. It can cause them to be very sick and very harmful to someone else."

The article said that "twenty-one children have been killed by the flu this season, according to the CDC. After officially becoming an epidemic during the week of Dec. 20, the flu slipped slightly below the threshold the next week, though it is widespread in 43 states, up from 36 the week before, the CDC reported."

According to the article, "it is recommended that students take extra precautions when returning to school."

"If they can provide hand hygiene products for their child to take for the classroom, that's essential," Hodge said. "Teach your child to use that. Also, making sure the children aren't drinking after each other or eating after each other is really important."

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Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor