My homeschooled DD was sick for nearly 3 weeks with *something* which I am guessing was H1N1 based on the symptoms, so unless you plan to isolate your kids from the world, homeschooling alone is not going to protect them.
As kilee said, unless none of you ever leave the house, you are exposed to all kinds of things every day.
And people forget so quickly how bad the "regular" flu can be. The flu season on '06-07 was HORRIBLE here; I posted about it on another H1N1 thread.
So many children were in ICU on life support from flu that the CDC was called in to investigate. It scared me to death. I couldn't get flu vaccine for my kids fast enough. I was actually more scared that year than I am right now.
I googled some articles from back then (the 2006-2007 flu season) and wow, they sound just like the things we're hearing now.
http://www.blackherbals.com/6_area_c...fe_support.htm
December 22, 2006
Six children are on life support at Children's Hospital fighting severe cases of influenza, hospital officials said.
The severity of the cases, many developing in the past two weeks, has raised concerns in Birmingham's pediatric medical community, said Dr. David Kimberlin, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at UAB.
"It is not the volume and not even the time of year that is jumping out at us," he said. "It is more that, for a number of otherwise healthy children, they are ending up on life support from the flu. The number of times that is occurring - it seems out of the ordinary, at least for now."
Influenza has hit Birmingham area children hard and early this year, with at least 10 reports of critically ill children, said Raenetta Ellison, influenza surveillance coordinator for the Jefferson County Health Department.
Normally, cases of that number and severity are not reported until late January, February and March, she said.
Alabama elevated its weekly influenza report to the "widespread outbrea" category this week, compared with the "regional outbreak" category last week, said Katina James, an epidemiologist with the Alabama Department of Public Health.
"Alabama had influenza activity earlier than most other states this year," Kimberlin said. "Right now, we and Florida and perhaps Georgia are really experiencing the largest outbreak of influenza in the country. We have a lot of children in the hospital with influenza, and that includes some very sick children in ICU."
The level of life support varies among the six patients, all of whom have respiratory failure, Kimberlin said. In some cases, in addition to a ventilator, additional support is needed, such as a heart and lung bypass machine.
While most of the younger flu patients are not that severely ill, emergency rooms and doctor's offices are staying packed with sick children, he said.
"I would like to know more so we can better understand what we are comparing this against," Kimberlin said. Outside of data that would better track the number of pediatric flu cases, "we are left with clinical impression. And this seems to be a particularly bad year, at least for some normal children who are getting the flu," he said.
Kimberlin, who is an associate professor of pediatrics at UAB, mentioned the 2003-04 flu season, when 153 influenza-associated deaths in children younger than 18 were reported by state health departments across the country. At that time, doctors determined that they did not know enough about how many children get sick during a flu season. Although studies and other types of surveys have been established since then, more time is needed to better compare one year with another, he said.
Hundreds sick:
Pinson Elementary and Chalkville Elementary in Jefferson County have reported hundreds of children out sick, many with flu-like symptoms, said Nez Calhoun, Jefferson County schools spokeswoman.
Two weeks ago, the schools had 300 and 400 students out sick, many with flu-like symptoms, on a Thursday and Friday, compared with about 30 to 40 students out sick a year ago. School officials sent letters home to parents urging them to keep sick children at home, she said.
Ellison, who monitors the number and severity of flu cases with the help of participating physicians, said she is urging parents to get their children flu shots and practice good hygiene.
For the week of Dec. 10-16, 186 patients with influenza-like illness, mostly children, sought treatment with a physician participating with the Jefferson County influenza surveillance program, she said. There were 50 such patients at the same time last year.
E-mail:
losburn@bhamnews.com
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnew...660.xml&coll=2
>
© 2006 The Birmingham News
and here's a follow-up article:
http://pandemicchronicle.com/2006/12...ren-follow-up/
CDC asked to probe severe pediatric flu in Birmingham area
Associated Press Fri, Dec. 29, 2006
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been asked to investigate several severe influenza cases in the Birmingham area that have caused at least nine children to be hospitalized, officials said.
Five of six children who were on life support at Childrens Hospital have improved, but three more children were admitted with severe flu cases in the past week, hospital officials said.
"There are still a lot of children going to the emergency room and a number of children admitted to the hospital."
Kimberlin told The Birmingham News in a story Friday that the CDC in Atlanta was contacted after the severity of pediatric flu cases raised concerns in Birminghams medical community.
He said none of the original six children on life support had been vaccinated. Doctors have identified the presence of both A and B strains of the virus and the CDC will further research the flu strains that were causing some of the more severe cases.
From the CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov/FLU/about/qa/0607season.htm
Quote:
Flu Deaths in Children
How many children have died from flu-associated complications during previous flu seasons?
During the 2003-04 Season, 153 flu-associated deaths in children were reported to CDC.
During the 2004-05 Season, 47 deaths in children were reported to CDC.
During the 2005-06 Season, 46 deaths in children were reported to CDC.
As of August 6, 2007, 68 deaths in children occurring during the 2006-07 season have been reported to CDC.
Here's a more recent CDC release:
Each year, the flu is reported to be responsible for almost 36,000 deaths, including about 46 to 74 deaths in children. Last year (2008-09 flu season), 97 deaths in children were reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.
There have been 53 influenza-associated pediatric deaths from swine flu since August 30.
This article is about Nebraska, Oklahoma, and also North Carolina cases from 2006-2007. So it was bad in many other places as well.
http://cbs11tv.com/health/CDC.Flu.Child.2.499672.html
My point is that although the deaths this year are certainly tragic, there have been flu deaths all along, but normally they fly "under the radar" with the media, and we don't hear about it. Even in '06-'07, I don't remember hearing about it on TV, just reading the two articles in the newspaper that I quoted. (The Birmingham News).
The rapid decompensation that a small minority of patients experience, is so unpredictable, and so hard to stop. It's really rare, but that doesn't make it easier when it's happening to someone you love. But it does make for the type story the media picks up on.
