We encourage all students and families to be vigilant and get an annual flu vaccination to ensure wellness and minimal illness if infected with the flu. Just a reminder of where to send documentation and the contacts for the Nursing Department:

Elementary Nurses

fatima.alano@asd.edu.qa

pvinod@asd.edu.qa

Middle School / High School Nurses 

jan.ibarreta@asd.edu.qa

laureen.tordecillas@asd.edu.qa

carmen.jones@asd.edu.qa

Wishing you all health and safety!

April 24th - 30th was World Immunization Week. This week highlights the World Health Organization’s (WHO) commitment to ensuring that people of all ages globally are not infected with vaccine preventable diseases. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic factors such as supply chain and service disruptions, a rerouting of resources, and the isolation of many, have caused routine immunizations to be disrupted especially for children. This has led to a resurgence in some countries of measles and health experts fear that more vaccine preventable diseases can re-emerge and cause outbreaks. Hence this year’s focus for World Immunization Week was “The Big Catch-Up”. 

Here at ASD we have also noticed the decline of immunization compliance in our student population in particular with our elementary students. The childhood years are vital to ensure that immunizations stay on track and lay the foundation for a lifetime of protection. ASD has some of the strictest vaccination requirements of schools in Qatar for two reasons:

• Our students represent over 80 nationalities and are very transient. Therefore it is vital that for the sake of the entire school population that every student does their part to adhere to our vaccine requirements.

• Due to the fact that we are an American community school we abide by the American immunization schedule which in comparison to some other countries is a much busier vaccine schedule. In addition, we also have the requirements of our host nation, Qatar, that we must abide by as well.

We ask that as summer approaches that time is made for routine doctors appointments here in Qatar or in your home countries. These steps also reinforce to our students their role in their health as global citizens. 

Also a reminder to our seniors and families June 5, 2023 at 3:00 pm is our deadline for requesting vaccination records for university. We are happy to assist in giving you vaccination records in PDF form until that date.

Enjoy your weekend!

Greetings from ASD Nursing!

The Nursing Department has been busy welcoming students back after the World Cup and planning for our busy spring. Please see a list of important information to be aware of:

• Covid-19 Update: We are happy to announce that the pandemic has gotten to a point that the Ministry of Public Health is no longer requiring Covid testing in school for close contacts once someone is confirmed to be positive. We ask that if students test positive that you still please let the Nursing Department and/or the Divisional Office know so that we may mark attendance accordingly and have a record of the positive case. The directive as of now for students, faculty, and staff that test positive is that they quarantine at home for 5 days and then they may return to school masked for an additional 5 days. If students have a household member that tests positive the student is still allowed to attend school. We simply ask that the student tests (at home or in a clinical setting) to confirm they are negative and to be mindful and retest if symptoms arise.

• Sickness Policy: Please be mindful that our 2022-2023 Sickness Policy remains unchanged. If you feel the need to keep your child out of school for 3 or more days due to illness we will need a note of medical clearance to file in their record.

• Hearing & Vision Screenings We are currently in the middle of our Vision & Hearing Screenings. Every year we work to screen grades 1,3,5,6,7 to ensure vision and hearing are intact to help with academic success. 3rd and 5th grade screenings are occurring currently and 1st grade will begin in March. 6th and 7th grade screenings will begin next week.

• Tdap Campaign The Ministry of Public Health in partnership with the Department of Health and Communicable Disease Control have announced that they will be conducting their annual Tdap campaign at schools in Qatar. We are excited about participating again this year and want to invite students in grades 10-12 who are due for the vaccine to have it done here at school. Students who are due or past due for the vaccine will get emailed invitations from the Nursing Department. Please look out for more information about this event in the upcoming weeks.

Greetings from ASD Nursing!

Respiratory Illness

Respiratory illnesses are back with a vengeance after most of the population have been masked over the past 2 years. Over the past few weeks we have seen influenza, croup, RSV, and bronchitis as well as Covid-19 infecting our students and teachers. We as nurses understand that we are in the season of respiratory illnesses. If your child is symptomatic with cold symptoms for longer than 2-3 days please consult with their doctor. If they have a fever we recommend that their doctor is notified immediately so that the source of the fever can be identified and treated if possible.

New Covid Rules

There are updates from the MOPH in regards to returning to school after Covid infection. The new directive is that students/faculty will quarantine for 5 days from their positive result. After the 5 days are complete the students may return to school but must remain masked for an additional 5 days. No retest is required.

Hearing & Vision Screenings

Hearing and vision screenings will resume in January once we return after the World Cup. If you have any concerns about your child’s hearing or vision please send us an email at carmen.jones@as.edu.qa and we will try to schedule a time during TVS to test your child.

Outstanding Medical Requirements

If you are still getting emails from the Nurses in regards to outstanding medical requirements to complete your student’s health file, we strongly urge you to use the time away from campus to see the doctor and complete these requirements. If you need clarification about what your student needs after receiving our emails please reach out to the nurse on the correspondence with your questions.

Greetings from ASD Nursing!

This week we want to discuss allergies! Many of our students across all divisions have very minor to quite severe allergies and the Nursing Department at ASD in partnership with all faculty and staff work to ensure that student allergies are known to all. Of course we need parent collaboration with this effort as well. The Student Health Questionnaire that parents are required to fill out when starting at ASD specifically asks about allergies. We ask that if you are newly enrolled at ASD and do not recall filling out this form to reach out to the Nursing Department. Many families receive emails from our Nurses asking follow up questions in regards to these questionnaires and we appreciate your swift responses to ensure the safety of your child while in school and also when they are off campus for fieldtrips. From these responses and conversations with parents we are able to add accurate medical alerts to your students PowerSchool so everyone is aware. 

If your student has been at ASD for a while and has developed allergies please inform the Nursing Department of this. We need to know this information for all allergies ranging from seasonal to life threatening ones. It helps us to properly treat your students when they are having allergy symptoms and to properly communicate with their teachers if there are any issues. 

In addition, any medications that are needed for allergies need to be housed in the Nursing Clinic. We have designated spaces for student medications and need to have a supply for your child if they are taking anything at home or if they have an epipen. We appreciate having face to face meetings with student families who are anaphylactic so we can be fully aware of how to serve these students. Again if you are reporting new or existing allergies here are the contacts below:

LES/UES Nurses are Prima Vinod (pvinod@asd.edu.qa) and Fatima Alano (fatima.alano@asd.edu.qa).

MS/HS Nurse is Laureen Tordecillas (laureen.tordecillas@asd.edu.qa).

Head Nurse is Carmen Jones (carmen.jones@asd.edu.qa) and she can be copied on all correspondence to all divisions.

We appreciate all the parents we have had the opportunity to meet over the first few weeks in regards to their children and we look forward to meeting more of you!

Once the case is reported the school notifies close contacts within the school for testing. Close contacts are considered to be anyone who has shared a space and been within 1 meter (3 feet) of the positive case for 15 minutes or more. From this point divisional offices will send notification and follow up with testing times to the families of the students that have had close contact. Parents, please keep in mind if you get this email and you have 2 students in the same division, either the class will be specified OR the student it is for will also get the email. Therefore, have students check their email to see which child it pertains to. 

ASD will send the list of contacts to the ministry with the details of recovery and/or vaccination status. It is extremely important that if you have not yet done so to please update the school with your student’s most recent Covid-19 vaccination documentation. ASD needs records of the first 2 doses of vaccine and the booster doses to ensure this process is as smooth as possible! This documentation can be reported in a number of ways. You may let us know by:

• Emailing the vaccination card or certificate to carmen.jones@asd.edu.qa, covidhelpdesk@asd.edu.qa, any of the ASD nurses, or the divisional offices

• Uploading documents of recovery to the Covid Recovery Form

• Uploading Vaccination documentation including booster doses to the Covid-19 Vaccination Form *Please note that documentation MUST be a vaccine card or certificate and NOT an Ehteraz screenshot*

A second test is often required by the MOPH for students who are unvaccinated or who have not recovered from Covid-19. Please keep in mind that according to MOPH protocol, recovery immunity lasts a year and if the second dose of vaccine is more than a year ago, and your student has not received a booster they are considered to be unvaccinated. 

Once the test occurs at school no quarantine is required UNLESS the student begins to have symptoms. Results are reported directly to parents. ASD is only made aware of positive cases. 

Clearing your student to return after Covid-19

If your student is positive on day 7 of their quarantine they should retest in a clinic to see their status. If the following occurs:

• If the student tests negative on day 7 then please submit these results to the divisional offices or the nurses to confirm they they will be returning to campus and have tested negative

• If the student tests positive on day 7 please get further directives from the testing facility. Usually in these cases students are simply required to quarantine for 3 more days and then are able to return to campus with no further testing. Please confirm this with the retest and convey these directives to the school.

Please feel free to contact our nursing department with any questions or concerns at covidhelpdesk@asd.edu.qa.

Have a good weekend!

Please bear with our nursing team as we look through the admission materials of all of our new students. You may receive emails from us in the upcoming weeks in regards to missing paperwork or immunizations. If so we will reach out to you.

Covid-19

The Covid-19 vaccine is not required for ASD immunizations, however, it is highly recommended. If your student is vaccinated and or boosted for Covid-19 and you have not shared the documentation with us you may email it to covidhelpdesk@asd.edu.qa or fill out the Covid-19 vaccination form that can be found here in Sahifa. This documentation is needed for field trips and activities on campus. In addition, in the event of exposure at school vaccination status is needed for contact tracing that is followed up by the Ministry of Public Health. We will be sure to pass along new guidelines in regards to Covid-19 as they are communicated to us by the ministry.

Sickness

We implore all of our families that if your student is displaying any symptoms of illness to keep them home and follow up with a doctor if their symptoms progress. This is not only out of an abundance of caution for Covid-19 but also for many other illnesses that we tend to see floating around school as the year progresses. 

Please look out for more updates in the upcoming weeks and we are excited to work with everyone this upcoming year. Wishing everyone health & safety.