Swine Flu Blues

If you're unlucky enough to have a kid come down with a fever right now, then you're likely to be told that your kid has to stay home for seven days. That means they miss their last week of school and their parents get them home for an extra day.

My friend's son is just getting over the flu. No one can tell her if it's actually the swine flu but he has to stay home from middle school for a full week regardless. Even when his fever is over and he's jumping around the house, he'll still be home playing video games.

He's missing the ice-cream social and the bowling trip and my friend is mad as hell. But this is apparently a policy coming straight from the Centers for Disease Control, so doctors aren't willing to override it.

I sympathize with my friend. I'm sure I would be less than thrilled if my kid had to stay home for a week even after he got better. But looking at the CDC recommendations, it's clear that they are recommending students stay home rather than recommending school closures. This is a worldwide pandemic after all and even though the symptoms seem mild in most cases, we know that people have died who had the swine flu. Staying home exposes fewer people.

Swine flu or H1N1 (which is much less catchy) seems to affect people ages 5 to 24 the most. But the first swine flu victim in New Jersey, a 49-year-old man, was confirmed this past Monday. New Jersey now has 320 confirmed cases of swine flu in 19 counties, with an additional 194 probable cases, Commissioner Heather Howard of the Department of Health and Senior Services said, according to nj.com.

As of June 12, there were 17,855 confirmed cases of H1N1 flu in the United States, with 45 deaths. The states reporting the most deaths were New York with 13, California with six, and Arizona and Illinois, both with five, according to nj.com.

Here's what the CDC says about symptoms:

"The symptoms of novel H1N1 flu virus in people are similar to the symptoms of seasonal flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. A significant number of people who have been infected with this virus also have reported diarrhea and vomiting."

They recommend that you prevent being infected by washing hands often with warm water. (I count to 30 but kids can sing the ABC song to wash long enough), covering hands and mouth with a tissue when you sneeze and throwing the tissue away and avoiding exposure to sick people. (Duh!)

As a substitute teacher and mom, I have to say I would hate it if my kids had to stay home with this thing but I would hate it even more if some well-meaning yet badly informed mom exposed my kids to their sick kid. So, pass the Purell please and if your kids sick, turn on the TV and ride it out. This is a bad bug and it might be here for a while.