Students at Millicoma Intermediate School in Eastside are being hit hard with the flu this week. On Tuesday, around 110 students were absent. World File Photo

While many South Coast schools weren't seeing many signs of the flu striking their students last week, things have changed in the span of a week.

One of the hardest hit the past two days has been Millicoma Intermediate School. With a population of 570, Millicoma saw about 110 students (about 20 percent of its overall population) report they were too sick to come to school or went home shortly after they got there, said Vickie Gabbert, the school's attendance secretary. On Monday, that figure was 113 students.

Gabbert said she thought things were getting better. Last week, the school had 50 to 60 students absent each day - down from the 87 students it was the previous week.

"Now it's gradually growing," she added. "This week, we really got hit."

The situation was almost the same further north at Siuslaw Middle School in Florence. Officials estimated about 25 percent of the school's 450 students were out sick on Tuesday.

The flu bug also was making is presence known at Marshfield High School. Attendance Secretary Gloria Spillman said more students were out sick than usual.

"It's higher than normal, but it's not as bad as it has been in past years," she added. "The numbers are starting to grow. I don't have exact numbers, but there are more phone calls from parents coming in."

Coquille High School's Attendance Secretary Cathi Morris said there were more students out the first day of the week than on Tuesday.

Student absences related to illness have hovered around 35 or 40 during the last few weeks.

"It's been sporadic," Morris said. "It's not a huge problem. We had 41 students out today - but not all of them are sick. But a big portion of them are."

At Reedsport Junior/Senior High School, the picture was about the same. Attendance Secretary Jodi Terry said there were quite a few more students out than usual and there were definitely more phone calls over the last three weeks. Reedsport's enrollment of 420 students saw a drop of about 30 students.

"Honestly, I expected there would be more," Terry said. "I thought it would be more like 15 to 20 percent. ... I think (the flu) is making the rounds instead of hitting everyone all at once."

Last week, Harbor Lights Middle School in Bandon reported it had not noticed any problems with the flu and things are still about the same.

Only about 30 students were absent on Tuesday, said Attendance Secretary Sue Beedle.

"Some of those are not sick, but out of school due to some early Christmas traveling," Beedle added. "We're fine - knock on wood!"