Schools and sickness

[Cathy McCaughan]

Since everyone, everywhere is talking about it anyway, let's talk about the role our schools will play when a major illness moves into East TN. At what point should the schools cease to have organized activities? Can the buildings be used as a resource for medical personnel to serve the sick or those not yet sick? How different will it be if this happens during the summer break? Will you isolate yourself and your family or will work/daycare/activities continue as normal? Is the media inciting panic prematurely?

• CDC
• World Health Organization
• American Red Cross

[Debi]

It doesn't surprise me as 2 of my kids were sick last week, now hubby & self are sick. I've not been kidding when I say we have some flu-like symptoms, but it also seems to be more nasal than flu, so who the neck knows. I"m not panicking, last night I made a big crock pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. The first one who was sick is better today, the second is quickly on the mends. Hubby & self still feed like crap, but being the old farts we are...

Whether or not my family has it, I dunno. Some experts are saying the spring version is mild and actually better to get now because it's less strong in the warm months because the virus doesn't do as well, but if it hangs out til fall it could be far more severe. For this reason, a spring contraction would build our immunity so in the fall we'd all be protected. I also don't think shutting down will help, because so many of us on the go will stay on the go. Only it will be parks, the mall, etc.

All that said, I say shut down everything for about 2 weeks, I could use a vacation!

[Ginevra]

I've been wondering about this. I have been working alongside a woman who told me last month that her kids had been sick for weeks with some kind of crud that she and her husband also caught: bad headache; body aches; some fever and a lot of goopy stuff in the lungs.

Back around late February I had had something similar, but it went away fairly quickly. A classmate had to go to the hospital for pneumonia (but she suffers asthma).

Just makes me wonder what the differences between all the bugs are, and if we haven't had it roaming around for weeks already anyhow, just with no publicity, and everybody trudging stoically along, passing along the crud to friends, family and coworkers as normal.

I hate being sick. The chicken noodle soup idea sounds like my kind of remedy. Maybe I should stock up...

[Debi]

The only thing we know about swine flu is that it's now being tested for. No one tested for it months ago, so for all we know someone in the US contracted it & visited Mexico & spread it there.

My past experiences as mom tell me our area is horrible at actually laboratory testing for things, I think we rely far to heavily on diagnosing from signs & symptoms. A pity considering we have all this technology. Just like the year two of my kids got pertussis. I had to request a pertussis culture 3 different visits before they finally did it, turns out it was positive. That winter tons of kids were coughing yet health care providers wouldn't test for it, was easier to stick heads in the sand. When my oldest was 18 mos & had salmonella I took her to the doctor & ER & racked up $1,000 in visits until she was passing blood in her stools. I was told they didn't test stools until blood was present because it's not cost effective. Turns out that round of testing was less than $800. I understand really expensive tests may not be all that good, but when you factor repeated office visits, being given wrong meds, etc, lab tests may be far more effective than health care providers want to realize.

[Debi]

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090504/NEWS07/905040329/Tenness...

Is this yet another example of a relatively benign illness turned into fear mongering? I vote yes or they wouldn't already plan on scaling back testing.

[momto3]

I am glad that the recommendations for closures have changed. My preference would be for no closures at all or follow Knox County normal procedures as it relates to percentage of students/faculty absences.

I would rather my kids be exposed now and come down with the mild form of this flu. If it mutates and causes more serious illness once fall rolls around, it would be nice if they already had immunity.

[Cathy McCaughan]

Sooo, instead of "chicken pox parties" we need "barnyard flu" parties? I don't think I could bring myself to do that.

[momto3]

I'm not interested in attending flu parties, anymore than I was attending chicken pox parties. Our son is a type I diabetic and any illness in our house is a cause for higher concern then we already have for our daughters. However, if a more dangerous form of flu mutates from this virus already floating around, I would rather my kids have had the less virulent flu than what may come next season. After having picked my father's brain (he worked at the CDC for over 25 years and has experience in dealing with contagious diseases), my preference would be for my family to have gotten this version of the swine flu rather than what may occur next flu season.

[Debi]

I would love to find a chicken pox party, though...

[Debi]

Ditto.