It's official, we survived H1N1

[shawmutt]

For some reason they stopped tested folks for H1N1 in our area (my mother-in-law is a nurse in the area and she said because of cost considerations)--but they continued testing anyone under one. My daughter, 10 months old, was really sick and we had to take her to the hospital. They did the testing, and she had it, which means that's what our whole family was sick with.

It's a really frightening thought. Our company is finally shipping out the first doses of the H1N1 vaccine. I'm probably still going to get my shot (or mist)--but damn--the what if's are bugging the crap out of me. What if this strain was just a little more deadly? Would any of my family have died?

I know my company and many others are working on a way to produce vaccine without using eggs. It's just damn scary to think that, in 2009, something as small as an influenza virus could run rampant throughout our population before we could lift a finger to prevent it. The anti-vax wonks, coupled with the rugged individualism of most US citizens, could really put a hurting on our country. It certainly is food for thought.

[Dymanic]

I guess that puts you in the enviable position of being essentially a spectator as the main event unfolds then. I'm a bit curious, though, as to why you feel it necessary to get vaccinated against a bug you're sure you've already had and recovered from. There's not going to be anywhere near enough of the vaccine to go around, you know; especially not right at first.

[PowderNine]

Where I am they do not even test you for H1N1 unless you are hospitalised and likely on a respirator. I was misdiagnosed twice (first time for bronchitis, second time for pneumonia) before having my half-dead body brought into hospital where it was confirmed H1N1.

In my humble opinion it isn't a conspiracy that they are not testing the population, we just have an overflow of people with coughs and colds who immediately think the worst (our ER's get flooded badly). It does, however, undermine the statistics of how many people are actually infected, regardless of the severity of symptoms.

[shawmutt]

I'm a bit curious, though, as to why you feel it necessary to get vaccinated against a bug you're sure you've already had and recovered from. There's not going to be anywhere near enough of the vaccine to go around, you know; especially not right at first.

I don't want anyone to be able to say that I don't get myself and my family vaccinated.

In my humble opinion it isn't a conspiracy that they are not testing the population, we just have an overflow of people with coughs and colds who immediately think the worst (our ER's get flooded badly).

Well, my mother-in-law claims the tests cost $800, and doctors aren't willing to spend that much money for H1N1. I don't know enough about their policies to really comment.

[Dymanic]

I don't want anyone to be able to say that I don't get myself and my family vaccinated.But I could say that now: You haven't gotten yourself and your family vaccinated!

Was that so bad?

[shawmutt]

That's because the vaccine is not yet available. When my friends and family ask me if I've been vaccinated I want to be able to tell them yes.

[Eos of the Eons]

Well, especially since they don't ever add "since you already go the flu" to the fact that you "refused the vaccine" if you don't get it.

[Dr. Imago]

Well, my mother-in-law claims the tests cost $800, and doctors aren't willing to spend that much money for H1N1.

Huh? (http://www.craigmedical.com/Influenza.htm)

This is the basic Influenza A/B test, about $15 a pop, that would at least rule-out whether or not the patient has the flu. Specific H1N1 testing could follow, but likely would be unnecessary. You could just presumptively assume they have H1N1, send the patient home, and tell them to sit tight for a week only to return if they got REALLY sick.

~Dr. Imago

[shawmutt]

Huh? (http://www.craigmedical.com/Influenza.htm)

This is the basic Influenza A/B test, about $15 a pop, that would at least rule-out whether or not the patient has the flu. Specific H1N1 testing could follow, but likely would be unnecessary. You could just presumptively assume they have H1N1, send the patient home, and tell them to sit tight for a week only to return if they got REALLY sick.

~Dr. Imago

At some point our area was testing for the subtypes to document novel H1N1 cases, which they stopped, according to my mother-in-law, due to cost considerations.

[Dr. Imago]

At some point our area was testing for the subtypes to document novel H1N1 cases, which they stopped, according to my mother-in-law, due to cost considerations.

Maybe, but I seriously doubt it was $800. That's about what a regular brain MRI costs.

I will find out what it costs and, more importantly, what the patient is billed at our hospital and get back to you.

:)

~Dr. Imago

[pgwenthold]

The reasons they aren't testing for H1N1 specifically anymore are

1) When they were testing, basically everything was coming back positive, so if you have infuenza A, you most likely have H1N1, and
2) It really doesn't matter whether you specifically have it or not. Unless it is serious enough for hospitalization, the treatment is the same (go home, rest, and don't infect anyone until you get over it)

[LibraryLady]

I just found out I was exposed to it on Friday night at our holiday dinner. The countdown begins.....

[JoeTheJuggler]

For some reason they stopped tested folks for H1N1 in our area (my mother-in-law is a nurse in the area and she said because of cost considerations)--but they continued testing anyone under one.

The CDC issued a statement on this point a month or so ago. At some point, there was no longer a need to track individual cases but rather to track it the way they do the normal seasonal flu.

This is from their Q & A page:

Is reporting hospitalizations and deaths associated with flu new?
Routine seasonal surveillance does not count individual flu cases, hospitalizations or deaths (except for pediatric influenza deaths) but instead monitors activity levels and trends and virus characteristics through a nationwide surveillance system. The reporting of hospitalizations and deaths by state health departments was a new surveillance system that was initiated at the beginning of the 2009 H1N1 outbreak.

This season, CDC and states will continue surveillance for flu-related hospitalizations and deaths, but the system has been modified to combine all influenza and pneumonia-associated hospitalizations and deaths and not just those due to 2009 H1N1. This is a new system in place effective August 30, 2009, that will be used to monitor trends in hospitalizations and deaths. CDC believes this system will provide a fuller picture of the burden of serious flu illness and deaths during this pandemic. This number will be cross-checked periodically against modeling studies to assess its validity.


I haven't heard that they were still tracking individual cases in infants, but I suspect that might be more to study its virulence in that age group than to track the epidemic. (Or it may have been something done locally just to improve treatment for that age group.)

[JoeTheJuggler]

but damn--the what if's are bugging the crap out of me. What if this strain was just a little more deadly? Would any of my family have died?

I'm more concerned about the possibility of a widespread epidemic, even if the sickness isn't especially virulent. The effect on our struggling economy of 30 to 50% of the population coming down sick for 10 days or so could be significant.

ETA: And that's aside from concerns related to an over-burdened healthcare system. (No space left in ICUs, for example.)

[Skeptical Greg]

Are ICU's usually employed in the case of flu victims ?

[Dr. Imago]

Are ICU's usually employed in the case of flu victims ?

Depends on how sick the patient is. I haven't personally taken care of any H1N1 patients, but our hospital has had two deaths (so far), including a 19-year-old and an infant. Both were treated in our pediatric ICU, which is a unit in which I do not provide patient care.

~Dr. Imago

[PowderNine]

Edit: Post irrelevant, see below.

[PowderNine]

Reading from my post which was quoted to my response (see above, now gone), the logical answers are between them. My apologies.

[shawmutt]

Maybe, but I seriously doubt it was $800. That's about what a regular brain MRI costs.

I will find out what it costs and, more importantly, what the patient is billed at our hospital and get back to you.

:)

~Dr. Imago

Thanks, when my wife told me I was sure it was b.s., at least the cost of it sounded a bit extreme. It's more likely that they just followed the CDC recommendations.

[Dave Rogers]

That's because the vaccine is not yet available. When my friends and family ask me if I've been vaccinated I want to be able to tell them yes.

But can't you say that now anyway? You've been vaccinated with a live culture of the H1N1 strain, conferring at least as much immunity as you're ever going to get from the vaccine. I'm not a medical practitioner, so I appeal to any who are reading here to correct me, but if you insist on being vaccinated against a disease you've just recovered from, just so you can say you've been vaccinated, aren't you rather missing the point of vaccination in the first place?

Dave

[Dymanic]

You've been vaccinated with a live culture of the H1N1 strain, conferring at least as much immunity as you're ever going to get from the vaccine.There we go. Shawmutt, if anyone asks, tell them you've already been innoculated against swine flu, and let somebody else have your dose.

[cisco]

Depends on how sick the patient is. I haven't personally taken care of any H1N1 patients, but our hospital has had two deaths (so far), including a 19-year-old and an infant. Both were treated in our pediatric ICU, which is a unit in which I do not provide patient care.

~Dr. Imago
How does a 19 year old die from the flu? Is it dehydration, organ failure, hemorrhaging, what? Was he or she healthy beforehand?

[JoeTheJuggler]

Are ICU's usually employed in the case of flu victims ?

I suppose it depends on how you use the term "usually". Most people who get the flu aren't even hospitalized, yet, the CDC says (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm):

Every year in the United States, on average:

5% to 20% of the population gets the flu;
more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu-related complications; and
about 36,000 people die from flu-related causes.

My guess is that many (perhaps most?) of the 30,000 or so that die from normal, seasonal flu each year end up in the ICU near the end.

The presidential panel said, depending on the timing of things (especially how quickly the vaccine gets out), the H1N1 epidemic could mean 30-50% of the population gets sick. Even if the total number of deaths aren't significantly higher, such a huge increase in the number of people missing work (and parents having to stay home with sick school-age children since normal daycare centers won't accept a kid with the flu) could present a huge economic problem. This is all specifically aside from the burden it would place on our healthcare system.

[Dr. Imago]

How does a 19 year old die from the flu? Is it dehydration, organ failure, hemorrhaging, what? Was he or she healthy beforehand?

Fulminant respiratory failure, requiring her to be placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for about a week to rest her lungs. She died when they tried to wean her off of it.

I didn't treat her, but from what I understand she was healthy until she got the virus. Probably got a large virus load as part of the initial infection, which can make a difference.

~Dr. Imago

[Skeptical Greg]

...... (and parents having to stay home with sick school-age children since normal daycare centers won't accept a kid with the flu)....

Since when have day care centers been diagnosing disease and excluding suspected flu carriers ?

[Eos of the Eons]

Kids aren't allowed in daycare if they have a fever, diarrhea, or are throwing up. Most fluish kids at least have fevers.

[cisco]

Fulminant respiratory failure, requiring her to be placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for about a week to rest her lungs. She died when they tried to wean her off of it.

I didn't treat her, but from what I understand she was healthy until she got the virus. Probably got a large virus load as part of the initial infection, which can make a difference.

~Dr. Imago
How would you get (or avoid getting :cool:) a large virus load as part of the initial infection? I'm not disputing what you say - I'm trying to educate myself about precautions. I've been a little paranoid about disease ever since I saw Outbreak :boxedin:.

[Deranged]

Couldn't pay me to take it. Has SQUALENE in it that causes GULF WAR SYNDROME. Look at www.askapatient.com and read what the tamiflu takers have to say about that particular drug too.
H1N1 was possibly made in a lab to put BILLIONS of dollars into the pharma industry.

[Deranged]

I've heard they die drowning in blood. Their lungs bleed and the blood comes out of their eyes and ears and they call this pneumonia. One third of children who die from swine flu had asthma. The others had autoimmune diseases.
Takes a day for the virus to get from the throat to the lungs so we gargle with Listerine each day and take Sambucus syrup (elderberry syrup).

[Nosi]

My PCP (primary care physician) wouldn't let me out of his office with out an armful of type A flu vaccine. I am a high risk patient as far as that bug is concerned as I have asthma and a number of other problems. There's no vaccine for H1N1, but we could nip the more standard bag yet potentially equally deadly bag of cooties in the bud.

As for daycares not admitting sick kids, kids and germs are a ghastly combo. Kids touch everything, and everything goes in their mouths, and sometimes up their noses. If their young enough, you can add diapers into the mix, and even the cleanest daycare can't keep every virus or bacteria at bay.

[The Kilted Yaksman]

Couldn't pay me to take it. Has SQUALENE in it that causes GULF WAR SYNDROME. Look at www.askapatient.com and read what the tamiflu takers have to say about that particular drug too.
H1N1 was possibly made in a lab to put BILLIONS of dollars into the pharma industry.
Surely you have some proof of this, right? If not I would recommend you take this opinion to the Conspiracy sub-forum.

[Dymanic]

Couldn't pay me to take it. Has SQUALENE in it that causes GULF WAR SYNDROME.
No influenza vaccine, including the pandemic vaccines, contains squalene or any other adjuvant.

[Safe-Keeper]

What on earth is the point of an "Ask a Patient" site, anyhow? Is it really that smart to view medicines like video games, as something you decide to buy or not buy based on the user reviews of random strangers?

ETA:
H1N1 was possibly made in a lab to put BILLIONS of dollars into the pharma industry. And?

Let me give a related anecdote: my mother was fairly upset some days ago because someone on the news had claimed one shouldn't make money off of running day care centres. She told me that in our area there are four daycare centres, all private, and that the woman running the day care centre she used to work at put her heart and soul into it and went through some really, really hard times when they undertook to move to a new, bigger building and it took longer than expected to get finished.

Why am I telling you this? Because it's yet another example of how certain areas of employ, for some mysterious reasons, are held to unrealistic standards for arbitrary, romantic reasons. You can work your butt off to produce a good car and everyone expects you to get paid, but work twice as hard to produce a movie or video game, or run a daycare centre, and all of a sudden you're greedy when you expect to get paid.

We mass-produce just about everything we can mass-produce these days, from DVD's and airplanes to toothbrushes and soda. No one lifts an eyebrow, and the fact that we have machines and large factories with which to do so effectively is considered a good thing. I mean, as I said earlier, no one goes around saying they don't dare fly with Boeing's planes because they're mass-produced by machines in aircraft factories, for profits. No one demands Toyota stops making cars out of synthetic materials. No one boycotts newspapers because they use printers instead of Gutenberg-style printing presses.

Then attention shifts to a romanticized field of employ and all of a sudden work must be done in a crude way, for little or no monetary gain, by determined workers (or preferably volunteers) who do it because they don't have anything better to do. It really, really, really gets to me.

Deranged, are you terrified every time you ride a plane? After all, it was most likely developed in a lab to put BILLIONS of dollars into the aeronautical industry.

[Praktik]

The anti-vax wonks, coupled with the rugged individualism of most US citizens, could really put a hurting on our country.

I have often promoted the "forest fire" approach to human progress. For a forest, a fire is a dreadful occurrence for living things at the moment it happens - but it also clears out the dead wood and allows for the forest to thrive in future years.

I take this approach with global warming and pollution - thinking that the costs will have to be much more dramatic, widespread and deadly before serious action is taken.

And I think the same thing is going to have to happen with the anti-vaccination movement. I am sad to say but it really appears like its gathering steam.

Give us a few polio outbreaks and some healthy kids dying from complications to measles though - and we can make a dent. But I really think to peel off the "normal" people who respond to anti-vax propaganda and leave the hard core of crazies behind that we're going to have to see the bitter fruit of the movement take hold first.

[pgwenthold]

ETA:
And?


Safe-Keeper - please reread the sentence you quoted. I think you missed something (actually, I think you added something)

[Safe-Keeper]

Safe-Keeper - please reread the sentence you quoted. I think you missed something (actually, I think you added something) Aaaaaaah. :facepalm:

I did indeed misread the sentence. Thought it was yet another person making an unfounded statement on vaccinations. Relieved to have been proven wrong:).

:p

[Eos of the Eons]

Squalene is an antixoidant. It's in your sebum, and is a pre-curser to cholesterol. It's completely natural to your body, even injected. And, they've been using it safely in vaccines in Europe for over a decade now.

[Audible Click]

Couldn't pay me to take it. Has SQUALENE in it that causes GULF WAR SYNDROME. Look at www.askapatient.com and read what the tamiflu takers have to say about that particular drug too.
H1N1 was possibly made in a lab to put BILLIONS of dollars into the pharma industry.

I've heard they die drowning in blood. Their lungs bleed and the blood comes out of their eyes and ears and they call this pneumonia. One third of children who die from swine flu had asthma. The others had autoimmune diseases.
Takes a day for the virus to get from the throat to the lungs so we gargle with Listerine each day and take Sambucus syrup (elderberry syrup).

I was just noticing your screen name.......

[shawmutt]

I've heard they die drowning in blood. Their lungs bleed and the blood comes out of their eyes and ears and they call this pneumonia. One third of children who die from swine flu had asthma. The others had autoimmune diseases.
Takes a day for the virus to get from the throat to the lungs so we gargle with Listerine each day and take Sambucus syrup (elderberry syrup).

Is that why your father smelled of elderberries? (Sorry, couldn't resist)

Anyway, deranged folks aside, I decided to take your guys' advice and took my name off the pandemic H1N1 mist list. We're all still getting the regular flu shot.

[Deranged]

No influenza vaccine, including the pandemic vaccines, contains squalene or any other adjuvant.
Would you say squalene is dangerous so it's not in any vaccines? I have read that it isn't in any of the TESTING swine vaccines; they left it out in those..hmm

[Eos of the Eons]

No. They've been using it safely in Europe as an adjuvant for 10 years.

[Eos of the Eons]

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=851
As of 2009, over 40 million people have been given squalene containing influenza vaccines in Europe.

[Eos of the Eons]

http://antiantivax.flurf.net/


Some anti-vaxers claim that squalene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squalene), a vaccine adjuvant is toxic and caused Gulf War Illness (GWI) in soldiers that received the anthrax vaccine, supposedly contaminated with squalene. However, a comprehensive review of GWI (http://sph.bu.edu/insider/images/stories/resources/annual_reports/GWI%20and%20Health%20of%20GW%20Veterans_RAC-GWVI%20Report_2008.pdf) by the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses observed that not only did the vaccine not cause GWI, but that the lots implicated did not contain any squalene as an adjuvant (instead, the anthrax vaccine used aluminum hydroxide (http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/80n0208/80n-0208-c000037-15-01-vol151.pdf)). Like other claims, the anti-vaxers have no quality studies to support their contention that squalene causes severe adverse reactions.
According to the same GWI review, squalene is "an oily substance that naturally occurs in plants and animals. It is found in a variety of foods, lotions, and cosmetics. It is also used as a food supplement and has been postulated to provide therapeutic benefits. In humans, squalene is synthesized by the liver as a precursor to cholesterol, and circulates in the blood."
Squalene appears to be an effective and safe (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/508174?cookieSet=1) adjuvant, based on a PubMed search revealing several (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=19197383)studies (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/527489?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dncbi.nlm.nih.gov) examining (http://docserver.ingentaconnect.com/deliver/connect/field/03000605/v33n4/s6.pdf?expires=1249581401&id=51514163&titleid=75001442&accname=Massachusetts+General+Hospital&checksum=4B3890C68FAEC5C1E7E26714D9C02BD1) its (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/368382) use in vaccines.
It should also be noted that squalene is offered in pill (http://www.vitasprings.com/squalene-shark-liver-oil.html)form by a variety of organic and natural food stores, as well as makers of dietary supplements. Squalene is also promoted as a moisturizer (http://skincarerx.com/news28.html).

[TheDaver]

That doesn’t even suggest, let alone prove, that it’s harmful. But you are Deranged after all.…

[Dymanic]

Would you say squalene is dangerous so it's not in any vaccines?
I have yet to see any convincing evidence that it is dangerous. I am not privy to any inside information regarding decision making procedures at the FDA. The bottom line, for me, is that NO FLU VACCINE CURRENTLY LICENSED FOR THE US MARKET CONTAINS SQUALENE AS AN ADJUVANT.

Maybe if I used a larger font?

[Deranged]

For some reason they stopped tested folks for H1N1 in our area (my mother-in-law is a nurse in the area and she said because of cost considerations)--but they continued testing anyone under one. My daughter, 10 months old, was really sick and we had to take her to the hospital. They did the testing, and she had it, which means that's what our whole family was sick with.

It's a really frightening thought. Our company is finally shipping out the first doses of the H1N1 vaccine. I'm probably still going to get my shot (or mist)--but damn--the what if's are bugging the crap out of me. What if this strain was just a little more deadly? Would any of my family have died?

I know my company and many others are working on a way to produce vaccine without using eggs. It's just damn scary to think that, in 2009, something as small as an influenza virus could run rampant throughout our population before we could lift a finger to prevent it. The anti-vax wonks, coupled with the rugged individualism of most US citizens, could really put a hurting on our country. It certainly is food for thought.
H1N1 can't be over since they're talking about closing the schools around here soon for 2weeks.
I am so sorry about your family's illness. Hope all is well. D.

[Deranged]

I didn't think it was approved either. You don't have to be nasty.
According to Meryl Nass, M.D., an authority on the anthrax vaccine,

"A novel feature of the two H1N1 vaccines being developed by companies Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline is the addition of squalene-containing adjuvants to boost immunogenicity and dramatically reduce the amount of viral antigen needed. This translates to much faster production of desired vaccine quantities."[v]

Novartis's proprietary squalene adjuvant for their H1N1 vaccine is MF59. Glaxo's is ASO3. MF59 has yet to be approved by the FDA for use in any U.S. vaccine, despite its history of use in other countries.

Per Dr. Nass, there are only three vaccines in existence using an approved squalene adjuvant. None of the three are approved for use in the U.S.

[Dymanic]

I didn't think it was approved either.
You didn't? Oh, sorry. I guess I must have gotten a little confused about that when I read this:

Couldn't pay me to take it. Has SQUALENE in it that causes GULF WAR SYNDROME.

That, and when I looked at the link you provided in the OP of the thread you started on this, a piece titled:

"H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Possible Side Effects and the Dangers of Squalene", which included a link to a Fox News video titled: "Doctors say that the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine has high levels of Squalene". Is Fox News real big outside of the U.S.?

[shawmutt]

Funny thing is I work for the company that supposedly created the pandemic H1N1. I watch the youtube videos and get to see first hand just how deluded and misguided the anti-vax and big pharma conspiracy theorists really are.

Or...I must be a bigger part of the conspiracy than I thought. :jaw-dropp

H1N1 can't be over since they're talking about closing the schools around here soon for 2weeks.

Who said anything about H1N1 being over?

[ExMinister]

Shawmutt, I'm relieved for your family.

Dr. Imago, is it true that one-third of the deaths are from asthma?

We just found out it's going through the kids' school. Our 6-year-old has asthma and has been hospitalized a few times in the past few years. Every winter we go through the same thing, every time he gets a cold it goes into wheezing and we have to start the steroids and nebulizer treatments and occasionally he has to be hospitalized.

My husband wants to take him out of school but we were told this could go on through March. I wish I knew whether to take him out of school or just do as we're doing and hope for the best.

It's scary.

The school told us that the problem is that the H1N1 symptoms come on quite suddenly. So parents send a healthy-looking kid to school in the morning and by noon the child has a fever of 102 and is developing a cough. The school then sends them home but by then it's too late for the kids who have been exposed to that child.

[Dymanic]

The school told us that the problem is that the H1N1 symptoms come on quite suddenly. So parents send a healthy-looking kid to school in the morning and by noon the child has a fever of 102 and is developing a cough. The school then sends them home but by then it's too late for the kids who have been exposed to that child.
It's even worse than that, because influenza is contagious for a day or so before the onset of symptoms.

There's some pretty good evidence indicating that well-timed school closures can be an effective community mitigation strategy, but once it became apparent that this strain wasn't exactly going to be Captain Trips, the CDC recommendation shifted to "keep the schools open, but send the sick kids home". Using that approach, more kids are likely to get sick, but the assumption is that most of them won't be all that sick.

My past experience has been that I can yank the kid out of school for about a month before I start catching serious heat from the administration. It makes sense to me that under the circumstances, there might be a little extra slack this year for those kids most vulnerable to flu due to asthma or whatever -- or those with high risk household contacts -- but then, it makes sense to me to just close the schools and be done with it. Since both of those apply to my kid, I have a feeling that before this is all over we're going to be finding out just how much extra slack there is; but for now, I'm still sending him. It's basically a decision I'm making on a day by day basis depending on what my best guess as to what the present level of flu activity is in my community.

[Dymanic]

Heh. And prolly just about the time I was typing that last post, the Reveres were putting up a piece on the very subject:

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/10/how_to_decide_when_to_close_a.php#more

[Skeptic Ginger]

Shawmutt, I'm relieved for your family.

Dr. Imago, is it true that one-third of the deaths are from asthma?

We just found out it's going through the kids' school. Our 6-year-old has asthma and has been hospitalized a few times in the past few years. Every winter we go through the same thing, every time he gets a cold it goes into wheezing and we have to start the steroids and nebulizer treatments and occasionally he has to be hospitalized.

My husband wants to take him out of school but we were told this could go on through March. I wish I knew whether to take him out of school or just do as we're doing and hope for the best.

It's scary.

The school told us that the problem is that the H1N1 symptoms come on quite suddenly. So parents send a healthy-looking kid to school in the morning and by noon the child has a fever of 102 and is developing a cough. The school then sends them home but by then it's too late for the kids who have been exposed to that child.The H1N1 vaccine is almost here. I will be giving FluMist starting next week and the killed vaccine probably the following week. In the meantime, if your child does contract the H1N1 flu before he has a chance to be vaccinated, if he starts Tamiflu within a day or 2 of symptom onset, he should be fine. Talk to your doctor ahead of time so if your son needs the Tamiflu you will be able to get it promptly, like if he gets sick on the weekend.

[ExMinister]

The H1N1 vaccine is almost here. I will be giving FluMist starting next week and the killed vaccine probably the following week. In the meantime, if your child does contract the H1N1 flu before he has a chance to be vaccinated, if he starts Tamiflu within a day or 2 of symptom onset, he should be fine. Talk to your doctor ahead of time so if your son needs the Tamiflu you will be able to get it promptly, like if he gets sick on the weekend.

Thanks, Skeptigirl. We were also told there is already a shortage of Tamiflu in our area, so most people are being sent home by their doctor without it. That's apparently because they are trying to keep some in reserve for high-risk people, which my son would be.

Dymanic, thanks for the posts and the interesting link.

Having a child with asthma is scary. It seems like when they start to have trouble getting enough oxygen, the signs aren't always obvious at first, and they can't always convey what's happening with them. So the entire cold/flu season is stressful, even without the threat of H1N1 to complicate things.

Most of the cases have been relatively mild at least so far, I was told. Miserable for the sufferers as any flu, but not life threatening.