Class-specific school closures for seasonal influenza: Optimizing timing and duration to prevent disease spread and minimize educational losses.

ABSTRACT: School closures are a safe and important strategy for preventing infectious diseases in schools. However, the effects of school closures have not been fully demonstrated, and prolonged school closures have a negative impact on students and communities. This study evaluated class-specific school closure strategies to prevent the spread of seasonal influenza and determine the optimal timing and duration. We constructed a new model to describe the incidence of influenza in each class based on a stochastic susceptible-exposed-infected-removed model. We collected data on the number of infected absentees and class-specific school closures due to influenza from four high schools and the number of infected cases from the community in a Japanese city over three seasons (2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 20

SUBMITTER: Masumoto Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11756796 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature