MOULTRIE, Ga. — Parents of Colquitt County students received an automated phone call Monday night warning of illnesses in the schools.

The call told parents the schools were seeing “an increased number of cases of flu, strep throat and stomach viruses at this time.”

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Colquitt Regional Medical Center said the hospital is experiencing “a high census,” and those three bugs are a big part of the reason.

Emily Watson, Colquitt Regional’s marketing director, said no one illness is to blame for the larger number of patients right now. Since Feb. 13, the hospital has seen 97 confirmed cases of the flu. Most of those have been between the ages of 5 and 17.

Physicians and staff are working extra hours to accommodate the needs of the additional patients, Watson said.

“The hospital is not full,” she said, “and anyone who needs our services should come in.”

Also on Tuesday, Carolyn Maschke, public information officer for the Southwest Health District in Albany, said the district epidemiologist is aware of the flu situation in Colquitt County schools. Other flu clusters are happening in Dougherty and Lee counties, she said.

“The district is working with the schools to manage the outbreak as is the usual course of action in this type of situation,” Maschke said.

“There is a lot of flu activity in Georgia at the present time,” she said, “and Southwest Health District is on trend. This is not unusual for this time of year. We often see flu through March and even into April.”

Both the school system and public health district urge parents and caregivers to keep children who are sick at home until they are free of fever, vomiting and diarrhea without the use of medication for 24 hours. The school system’s call specifically asked parents not to give feverish children medicine that drives down their temperature then send them on to school.

“Children must be healthy to learn,” the recording said.

Other recommendations from the Southwest Health District include:

• Students who may have the flu should not participate in sports, choir or other activities that involve close contact.

• Teach your child to practice good health habits — washing hands frequently with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds and sneezing or coughing into the inside of the elbow.

• Disinfect frequently-touched surfaces, toys and shared articles.

• If someone in your household gets the flu, a healthcare provider can prescribe a medication — called an antiviral — that may help shorten the length of the illness and the severity of the symptoms. The treatment, which is not a cure, must be started within the first 48 hours of flu onset.

• A provider may also prescribe an antiviral to family members to help prevent flu transmission to them if a household member is diagnosed with flu.

Finally, Maschke said, avoid giving children aspirin and products that contain aspirin. Aspirin has been linked to a life-threatening liver condition known as Reyes Syndrome. Further, do not use children’s over-the-counter multi-drug cold and flu medications, which have been shown to offer little relief and may cause significant side effects, she said.