Manhattan High School and the Riley County Health Department need parents help getting conclusive information on the mystery illness that’s affected over 100 students.

Eighteen students were sent home Thursday and another fourteen on Friday for having stomach flu-like symptoms, the total is now roughly over 100.

According to Manhattan High School principal Greg Hoyt, the faculty and staff at the school are taking every precaution to ensure the illness doesn’t spread.

“We are very hypersensitive to this so any student showing up in the nurse’s office complaining of an upset stomach, any type of nausea; in circumstances where we might feed them a saltine cracker and try to keep them in school, we’re immediately sending them home,” said Hoyt.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture visited the school on Wednesday to check the kitchen and found no issues.

“As a matter of fact, they believe it this is a virus, it was introduced from outside the building and not inside the building,” said Hoyt.

As a precaution, KDA advised the school to use a bleach solution to disinfect everything from water fountains and restrooms to handrails and doorknobs.

“The cleaning information provided to us addressed Norovirus, but we don’t know that it’s Norovirus. We just know that if it is, we want to get a head start,” he said. “So that’s why the bleach solution was recommended and that’s what we’re using until further notice.”

Parents of sick students are encouraged to send the Riley County Health Department stool samples so they can send to a lab at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for testing.

“What would really help us out now, is if parents would come in and bring us a stool sample, even if their students were sick last week,” said Dr. Jennifer Green of the Riley County Health Department.

“So we’re not suspecting anything yet. We are not making speculation about what’s causing this until we get confirmed lab results back from the state department,” said Green.

The Riley County Health Department is asking parents to keep children home from school if they have any symptoms of nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.

To report these symptoms, call RCHS at 785-776-4779.