What to Do if H1N1 Hits Your Kid's School

When Is It Time to Keep Them Home? How Can You Help Them Steer Clear of the Virus?

(CBS)  About 600 schools have shut their doors already for a period of time this flu season due to an outbreak of the H1N1 virus.

With the trend expected to continue, school closings will almost certainly exceed last spring's total of 700 - despite federal officials recommending at the beginning of the school year that schools stay open and not disrupt normal activities for the pandemic.

Every day this week in the United States, there were more than 200 schools closed due to H1N1.

And the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 19 deaths from H1N1 complications among children in the latest reporting week, the biggest weekly number yet, and brining the total to 114. It was the second straight weekly spike.

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Parents' Guide to H1N1
CBSNews.com Special Report: H1N1

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So, parents are facing a dilemma: What if the virus hits your youngster's classroom or school? Do you send a healthy child to class, or keep him or her home?

Dr. Holly Phillips supplied some answers on "The Early Show Saturday Edition."

She advised that you make sure the sick kids are home and there are no symptomatic kids still in school. Keep kids home at the first sign of illness. Parents are on the frontline and are going to make the biggest difference in this national health emergency, Phillips says, adding that, by keeping kids home at the first hint he or she may have H1N1, you're protecting them and others. And that, she says, is how we'll keep our schools open.

What about when your child is healthy but you learn someone in their class or school has H1N1?

That's a tough call, Phillips admitted to "The Early Show Saturday Edition co-anchor Erica Hill. "The best thing to do is communicate with the teachers and the school staff to make sure the sick kids are at home and they're staying home, and also there aren't children with symptoms still in the classroom."

After-school activities may actually pose a greater risk of H1N1 transmission than school hours, Phillips points out, because kids are in closer contact, playing sports, in locker rooms, socializing, etc. Touching and breathing are a breeding ground for the illness.

If your child is on a play date, don't hesitate to ask other parents questions if you suspect any of their friends is displaying possible H1N1 symptoms. It's better to be safe than sorry, Phillips says.

Typical first signs of H1N1 include fever, body aches and a runny nose; coughs come a little later.

Halloween presents a unique challenge, Philips admits, so parents should make sure trick-or-treaters follow the usual hygiene rules, by washing their hands frequently, perhaps using a hand sanitizer, and trying no to cough on someone else or get coughed on.

Phillips noted an encouraging sign: There's no negative word on the safety of either the H1N1 vaccine or the one for this year's seasonal flu. The CDC reported some mild allergic reactions, along the same lines as what is seen with the regular flu shot.

[gaye5]

rational_1 you are so right, here in Australia it was generally so mild that even the Dr's gave up testing for it, and yes we had a handful of people die, all but one had very compromised immune systems through drinking and malnutrition etc, and like you, unless a person was extremely run down all cases were mild.. some were hospitalized as they are with the normal flu, and in the mean time drug companies are once again making trillions with their scare campaigns.
There is NO WAY that I would inject my child with fast tracked immunizations in fact I have totally lost confidence in governments and drug companies, they are experimenting with our lives we are just guinea pigs.
Does it not seem strange that although we are supposed to have such advanced medicines and technology our children are sicker than ever before. On the 12 July 2007 the Journal of the American Medical Association, 2007; 297: 2755-9, reported that one in five American children now has a chronic illness. The figure has trebled in the last 20 years, and more than 1 million children now receive disability benefit from the government, and a new study estimates that 5 million children ? that?s 7 per cent of all children in the USA - have an illness that limits their daily activities.
Then we see that the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S is prescription drugs, Dr's and hospitals.. Isn't that enough to make people sit up and take notice.
As a nurse 50 years ago, I never saw a child with leukemia or cancers, (I am not saying that there might not have been the odd ones), and in my very large school on the slopes of a mountain, we only had one child with asthma, when will parents wake up that drug companies are not helping them they are in fact slowly killing our children, and in the process making trillions out of us with their experimentation, ask yourselves, who do they experiment on to know if it works?? if it is animals how do they know what it will do to us.

[rational_1]

My older son had swine flu (he was tested so I know for sure). He ran a 101 degree fever for a few days, slept a fair bit and recovered quickly. My wife and I felt a bit off for a few days at about the same time but didn't have fevers and if that was swine flu, it's the mildest I've ever had. My younger son never complained of anything and as far as we know he never got it, despite being in frequent contact with the older boy. It's certainly an odd strain - pretty mild in many people and yet it kills previously healthy people, but fortunately not many.

[noahlani1969]

The media create a panic with the H1N1. More people are dying from the seasonal flu that the H1N1 ( 1000 cases in one year but 30,000 for the flu ). People with pre-existing condition should get the shot. The more you protect, the less your immune system will work.
Look at the french, they refuse because it is a kick back from the pharmaceutical lab to the doctor. If we get a shot each time a new virus comes up, we won't be able to fight any infection.
What do you tell to people who are allergic to the flu shot. The H1N1 is made from eggs too. Get the shot but sometimes you can't get it because the inmates get it first. Kill or rob and you will be able to have health care. Where is the justice.

[RALPHSWINE]

I think that Nature is just naturally thinning the herd of people. Its like musical chairs...nobody wants to be the one without a seat when the music stops playing. But think of it this way. Every lving thing on this planet has the capability of reproducing itself so mcuh that if let unchecked, the planet would be over run by that one specicies. What happens is that checks and balances come into play and those millions of eggs from whatever is laying them never hatch for a zillion different interactive reasons. The bats eat the mosquitoes and so on otherwise we would have chaos. This swine flu is like the polio nightmare years ago a natural thinning of the herd. You got to admit with less people driving the costs of eveything up the remaining people who live would be better off. Its a sad thing to say but each and everyone of you know its true......just so its not me or anyone in my cirlce. We are all thinking that..just not saying it.

[mary_moran]

My child says the kids at school learned to cough and sneeze into their elbow with Germy Wormie, and I was totally taken aback. I always covered with my hands. But I went to the website and now I get it, hands touch, elbows don't!! Kids can touch 300 surfaces in 1/2 hour and they hate to wash their hands. This is a simple thing that can make a huge difference. There is also an entertaining DVD that teaches them in a fun way the elbow cough, as well as other important hygiene habits. Anyone who gets a shot may still be a carrier of the virus anyway, health department officials say.

[okcspitfire]

We have seen extremely long lines and I wonder if my child will be able to get the vaccine before she gets H1N1. I have to ask why the vaccines did not go first to the public and private school systems for immediate distribution. If the children are the first and foremost concern then they should have sent the vaccines to the schools first.

We know how many children we have in all of our schools both private and public. We know that it would have been very easy to get volunteer nurses to distribute the vaccines. We also know that there will be a number of student who will not take the vaccines due to their or their parents fears. Based on all this why wasn't the vaccines first distributed to the schools, what was not used could have been given to the county health departments for distribution to pregnant women.

Is Brownie still in charge of EMERGENCY responses? This is a fast moving deadly flu pandemic. Thankfully this is not a biological terror attack otherwise we would have lost over half of our population by now.

We continue seeing long lines of people standing for hours only to get turned away. How many of these people who are in line may have the early onset of the flu? If there are people in these lines with early onset they are exposing others to the flu. I can't help but believe that education did not serve our elected officials well. Because whoever came up with this system of distribution should be held to account for all those who have died because of such an inept response.

How many more of our citizens will die because the way a fast moving deadly flu was dealt with, the response to this is appalling