Dr. Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe: Get ready for the flu
You know one of these days it will happen. On the day when you least expect it (and often when it is least convenient) the school nurse will call to inform you that your child has "flu-like symptoms with a fever" and needs to be picked up. Now what?
The name of the game is uninterrupted learning and avoiding the widespread school closings that occurred last spring. This year's flu season will test all our systems to the max. There are two influenza strains to contend with, an intensity of flu season predicted to be quite strong, and 55 million students and 7 million staff in 130,000 public and private schools, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC has learned a great deal about the H1N1 virus since it first arrived on the scene. It concluded we can manage the upcoming flu season as we always have but use last year's aggressive plan if the situation ends up becoming much more intense than anticipated. To this end, the CDC has prepared two tiers of guidelines for schools and health professionals to follow.
I'll summarize the highlights for each situation, but you can find the full 2009-2010 school year flu management guidelines at www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/schools/schoolguidance.htm.
The highlights for the expected flu season include:
- Keep sick people home until fever free for 24 hours.
- Separate sick students and staff from healthy if someone becomes sick at school.
- Wash hands, cough into your elbows, blow noses into tissue.
- Clean, clean, clean all public areas frequently.
- High-risk folks need early treatment with anti-viral medications.
- Selective school dismissals only.
If the flu season becomes a whopper, the CDC suggests that:
- Screening for influenza virus should start.
- High-risk folks should consider staying home until the situation is more under control.
- Contacts of people with flu stay home for five days.
- Schools need a plan for this: homework to kids, separate kids while at school more.
- People with the flu stay home for seven days.
- School dismissals become considered in consultation with local CDC chapters.
Your pediatrician is the best person to help you decide what family members are "high risk" so you can be prepared to know that ahead of time. Keep in mind, though, that all kids are considered "high risk" in that they are the ones at most risk for becoming the sickest from either flu strand. So please immunize all your kids ages 6 months to 18 years against both the H1N1 and seasonal flu.
The flu season is not here yet, but it will be, and soon. Arming yourself with the latest information today is what will give you peace of mind tomorrow.
Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, M.D., F.A.A.P., is a pediatrician and mother of two from Wayland, Mass. A graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine, O'Keeffe completed her residency training at New England Medical Center. She is founder and CEO of Pediatrics Now, www.pediatricsnow.com, and can be reached at email@example.com.