BY KELLEY BOUCHARD

Portland Press Herald

Twenty-five schools across Maine reported higher-than-normal absentee rates during the last week, likely because of H1N1 influenza, the state's health director said Thursday.

No schools have been closed, but several people have been hospitalized because of the flu, said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We anticipated that H1N1 would continue to spread," Mills said. "It has now been confirmed in every county, with Franklin County having its first confirmed case this week."

State health officials require schools to report absentee rates of 15 percent or more.

Cities and towns where schools reported such high rates are Beals, Bethel, Bridgewater, Brunswick, Durham, Dresden, Eddington, Gardiner, Hampden, Hartland, Holden, Jonesport, Lewiston, Monmouth, Newport, Northeast Harbor, Old Town, Orono, Palmyra, Readfield, St. Francis, South Berwick, Vassalboro and York.

Normal absentee rates range from 3 percent to 8 percent, Mills said.

Mills declined to name the schools that reported high absentee rates because, she said, "influenza is so widespread right now, the assumption should be that it's in every school."

Mills said there were 24 new outbreaks of flu-like illness in Maine schools last week, and nearly 300 confirmed cases of H1N1 overall.

Ten people were hospitalized for H1N1 last week, including four children, one young adult and five middle-age adults. All of the children were otherwise healthy.

Three of the people who were hospitalized spent time in intensive-care units, Mills said. Eight of the 10 patients have been discharged from hospitals and are recovering at home.

"We can expect to see continuing expansion of H1N1," Mills said.

Meanwhile, efforts continue across the state to vaccinate people in high-priority groups, including children and pregnant women.

An estimated 15,000 schoolchildren across Maine have been vaccinated, Mills said. The state also has distributed 6,600 doses of vaccine for preschool children and 10,000 doses for pregnant women.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, praised Maine's well-organized school vaccination program in a New York Times story on Saturday.

Mills said Maine received about 40,000 new doses this week, for a cumulative total of 138,600 doses. She said that's about one-fifth of the doses needed to vaccinate people in high-risk groups.

"Although the vaccine supply is trickling in at a much slower rate than we would like, the H1N1 vaccine efforts in Maine are unprecedented," Mills said. "The good news is that about 100 schools have held vaccine clinics, and more than 200 have scheduled clinics this week and next."

In Portland, Maine's largest school district, about 2,000 students have been vaccinated for seasonal and H1N1 flu in the last two weeks, said Amanda Rowe, school nurse coordinator. An additional 3,000 will be vaccinated in the weeks ahead.

"The school nurses and other staff members are doing a great job," Rowe said. "It's been a fabulous effort."

Rowe said absentee rates in Portland schools haven't risen to the level that must be reported to state health officials.

"It's fluctuating day by day," Rowe said. "We've had a little increase at some schools, where it will be up to 8 or 10 percent for a day or two, and then go back down."