A stomach virus has hit a local elementary school. Almost a week later, kids and teachers are still out sick.

It’s no secret that kids pick up germs. They wipe their nose with their bare hands and cough without covering their mouths…among other unsanitary things. And when you confine them all to one place, like a school, it’s almost inevitable that those germs will spread.

But, one local elementary school has seen a wide-spread outbreak of some unnamed virus that is almost of epidemic proportions.

News broke about it last Wednesday when hundreds of students and teachers were absent complaining of flu-like symptoms.

Approximately 20 percent of the student body and 12 out of 38 teachers were absent Wednesday. Thursday, about 30 percent of the student body and six teachers are out, Oby Lyles, spokesman for Greenville County Schools, told The Travelers Rest Tribune last week.

And, today, 50 Heritage Elementary students and seven teachers were still out sick, with those flu-like symptoms continuing to take a toll on the Travelers Rest school, according to the Greenville County School District.

“We continue to sanitize ‘high touch’ areas and encourage students to wash hands and use hand sanitizer,” district spokeswoman Susan Clarke said in a statement.

Some parents and faculty have been tested, and while the virus is flu-like, it isn’t the flu, Principal George Champlin said.

Who knows what it is or where it started, but it’s creepy how quickly and violently it spread. Yuk!