Influenza has struck our city, and friends and neighbor children are toppling like dominoes. Four kids get influenza in one class and that grade is canceled for a week. And the next week some other class is infected and that class goes down. And parents have to stay home, partly to care for the ill, partly because if it is Swine flu the companies have a policy that workers must stay home a week if any family member is stricken. This makes for a lot of absences. I mean, SOMEONE in the family is sure to bring home some virus and then mom and day are banned from the workplace for a week, and then pretty soon some other member of the family gets it and everyone takes a week off again!
Usually there are about 20 kids from my neighborhood walking to school every morning but last week there were a whole 7. Some of the kids had influenza. Some of the kids' grades were cancelled. Some of the kids were just staying home for prevention purposes. And those that do go to school wear masks all day and gargle with green tea at breaks... (Not such a great picture but all the girls going to school in their group are wearing masks.)All last week I was saying
"Let me get through the weekend Lord! I do not want to miss my guests!"
And I did make it. Yeah. I wonder how much longer I can hold out.
10 comments:
Are vaccines available there? We have had a long wait to get them but luckily I was able to schedule an appointment for my husband and me to get the H1N1 vaccine at the local health department this Wednesday. Thank heavens, because we both catch every respiratory virus within three counties of us and it will be a relief to not have to worry so much.
I know that green tea has antiseptic properties, but gargling? Although it sounds much more pleasant than Listerine. I have put my faith in hand sanitizer and I run through a lot of it (knock wood!).
Flu is here in IN, also. My 44 yr old nephew and his 21 yr old son had it...a niece and her husband and two sons, have sort of been "passing it around", for about a month now. Bill and I have been healthy, so far :))
Yep, it's struck here too - my son had it a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't too bad.....although the media is hyping it for all they're worth. Not nearly the deaths that there are from the regular flu. I'm not getting a vaccine.
Hope you and Tetsu stay healthy and don't catch anything! Staying home when you're sick is a good plan. I wish people hadn't gone to work sick when I was working.
Take care, avoid crowds. Even our store has cleaning wipes for the carts. Gargling with green tea is a new one for me. Can't hurt any.
Thanks for the update. 16 deaths in Iowa, 15 adults, 1 child. 500 hospitalized wirh flu.
Tanya, you might be surprised at how long you can hold out. There's been Type A influenza a couple times in the last 40 yrs & folks older than 40 probably have some immunity. It's funny how it hits anyway. My oldest grand-daughter had it but no one else in the family caught it. Her sister had a slight cold & her brother had a fever one day, so maybe that was it for them, but there was no point in staying home from school, a lot of the kids already had it.
I'm not too worried. I figure I'll either get it or I won't. I always take vitamins, garlic & other supplements and haven't been sick in over two years...not even a sniffle that isn't allergy related. By the time the vaccine is available for everyone out here in rural Nebraska we will either all have had it or aren't going to get it anyway.
The news media has just stirred up so much fear. Yes, this is a slightly different flu. But every season the flu is slightly different because of mutations and on average about 36,000 people die of it and complications like pneumonia. H1N1 isn't even close to those numbers.
People were lining up here and using up all the available flu shots (pregnant women and young children only). There are 2 kinds of shots - one for the regular flu and one for the h1n1. Yesterday, they opened it up to all children, but not a lot of people went. I think fewer people are getting sick, and maybe they managed to get the shots at their doctor's office or the school.
We have the same problem in Canada too.
We have vaccine available for high risk populations and I will get one because I work at the hospital.
But it doesn't help the children any when they can't get vaccinated!
We've having/had it in the UK..lots of campaigns to remind people to wash their hands. Keep Well.
I always wonder why the Japanese wear these masks??? You never see them here in the Netherlands, and somehow I think they are very funny, but I wonder if they help in any way??? I am a teacher and I am surprised about the rule that when some kids are ill the whole class is counselled. We just go on teaching all the time although the flue (we call it mexican flue) has arrived now too. Some people with a health risk may get an vaccine here and little children from 6 months to age 4. At school we remind the children to wash their hands a lot, use paper hankerchiefs and stay at home when ill. Each country seems to have their own way to handle this flue....
Post a Comment