H1N1 Swine Flu

So - as some of you may know, Syd and I have been staying close to home for the last two weeks in an effort to avoid contracting the Swine Flu. The flu seems to be rampant in Northern Virginia. I know many, many folks who have gotten it: people in my mommies group, people at work, people at Tom's work, and - of course - Sarah and Jodi. Obviously, there are plenty of stories on the news about many more people who are struggling with this illness. Usually, Syd and I are pretty careful about disinfecting and washing our hands, but we've never really gone on house arrest before. Why the drastic action? Here are some facts and figures:

- Pregnant women and children under age 2 are specifically at higher risk of H1N1 than people in other age groups

- Since H1N1 was first discovered in 2008/2009, more than 150 children have died of H1N1 or pneumonia or other disease caused by H1N1 (this is significantly higher than from the regular flu).

- The spread of H1N1 is particularly high in Virginia/Maryland/DC (there are only two other regions in the US where H1N1 has a higher incidence).

- Pregnant women are four times more likely than the general population to be admitted to the hospital if they contract H1N1.

- During the first four months of the H1N1 outbreak, more than 100 pregnant women were hospitalized in intensive care and 28 died. That's a 28% death rate! Most of the women who have died from the virus were initially healthy when they caught the virus.

Obviously, this is a very scary situation. Jodi and Sarah's experience just underlined the importance of taking proactive measures. Here's some of their experience:

- Sarah was exposed to H1N1 on Friday and had full-blown symptoms by Sunday. Her illness was confirmed as flu on Monday. Jodi got it almost immediately after Sarah got it.

- Sarah's fever was consistently 101 or 102 with Motrin and Tylenol in her system.

- Sarah's doctors are especially concerned about the possibility that the virus will push congestion and infection into her lungs and chest - causing pneumonia.

At this point, Sarah and Jodi seem to be doing better. Say a little prayer that they will recover quickly.

The silver lining about this illness is that there is a vaccine available. The CDC recommends that pregnant women and children under the age of 2 especially get the vaccine. All the doctors that I have chatted with (OB, GP, and Pediatricians) have agreed that the risks associated with the vaccine are far fewer than the risks associated with getting the illness and then having to treat it and the possibility of secondary infection.

If you do end up with H1N1, here are some tips from Jodi:

1) Get plenty of liquid Tylenol and Motrin in the house now. Sarah typically takes chewable versions of those drugs, but was too sick to get them down with this virus.
2) Stock up on juice, Sprite, Gatorade, and Pedialyte. You'll need to push lots more fluids than usual to stop the fever from dehydrating your child.
3) Find a drive-through pharmacy near you. Tamiflu was in short supply this week, but I called around until I found a pharmacy that had it. It was enormously helpful for Sarah. I wasn't able to get it, and it took me much longer to start feeling better.
4) Harris Teeter has a drive-through grocery service. If nobody is able to get into a store for groceries for you, you can order them on their Web site, pull into the drive-through lane at the store at the appointed time, and they load everything into your trunk for you.

I think that covers it for now. Stay healthy!