Inuvik (Dec 08/03) - The Influenza A virus hasn't finished in the Beaufort-Delta or Sahtu region yet.

"Some communities are quieting down while some communities are just starting up so it's not over yet," said Marilyn Lidstone, manager of community health centres for Inuvik Health and Social Services.

Things are getting back to normal in communities like Inuvik and Aklavik where more than half the students were out of school earlier last month. But the flu is just starting in Deline, Holman and Fort McPherson, said Lidstone.

More than half -- 80 of the 140 students -- in Holman's Helen Kalvak school were ill on Nov. 24, said principal Helen Kitekudlak. But by Nov. 28 about 90 students were back to school, she said.

Weather is now keeping the kids at bay. The school closed for most of last week due to a blizzard, allowing for students and staff to recuperate from the virus, said Kitekudlak.

Ehtseo Ayha school in Deline and Albert Wright school in Tulita were both closed last week due to the flu, said Seamus Quigg, superintendent of education for the Sahtu Divisional Education Council.

"The nursing stations recommended closing them to prevent spreading the flu," he said from his office in Norman Wells.

He said most of the schools in his district have been hit hard by the virus but Deline and Tulita schools seemed to be the worst. During the week of Nov. 24, 65 per cent of the students at Albert Wright school were home sick, said Quigg.