<p>So who is letting this impact travel plans?</p>
<p>I’m going to wait and see. S and I are supposed to be going East in early July, but we’ll see.</p>
<p>In Texas, the state board that oversees all inter-school competitions has cancelled all competitions until May 11 (or later). No ball games, no track meets. The All-State things scheduled in the next two weeks are postponed or cancelled. All-State academic competitions will be re-scheduled.<br>
School districts with confirmed cases are closing, and cleaning crews are coming in and sanitizing everything.<br>
Overkill? Being prudent?</p>
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<p>Yes, that is what the health dept is saying for the Syracuse area. There are not enough doses available of the flu shot (preventive) and people who are high risk or seriously ill should, although it may or may not be effective. Tamiflu is also limited but is effective, but may not remain so if the strain mutates due to overuse of current drug therapies.</p>
<p><a href=“http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/02/resistance-to-tamiflu-growing.html[/url]”>http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/02/resistance-to-tamiflu-growing.html</a></p>
<p>Sorry, I put this on the other thread, but it seems more valid here. During the SARS epidemic, Singapore shut all the schools. As a result, the shopping area of Orchard Road was full of high school kids, thereby increasing the number of people an infected kid could contact.</p>
<p>A friend just let me know that there is a probable case at CSU Long Beach and the news here reported a case at SDSU.</p>
<p>I just got a report that the entire Fort Worth school district is closing through May 11th. And of course I’m thinking about all those kids who should be taking AP & IB exams next week. I wonder what the College Board and IB will do?</p>
<p><<
Quote:
sk8rmom, did you mean to say that those who are not high risk do NOT get Tamiflu (the treatment that may lessen the severity of the disease for someone who is already infected)?
Yes, that is what the health dept is saying for the Syracuse area. There are not enough doses available of the flu shot (preventive) and people who are high risk or seriously ill should, although it may or may not be effective. Tamiflu is also limited but is effective, but may not remain so if the strain mutates due to overuse of current drug therapies.</p>
<p><a href=“http://health.usnews.com/articles/he...u-growing.html[/url]”>http://health.usnews.com/articles/he...u-growing.html</a> >></p>
<p>A few years ago I took Tamiflu when H caught influenza, and as a preventative you need to take doses over a goodly number of days. If they’re concerned about the supply of Tamiflu, saving it for the people who actually have the flu is probably more efficient. (Though I have to say that I really, really appreciated the help in avoiding the flu given that D was really sick.)</p>
<p>The current flu shot does not contain "coverage for the H1N1 virus-whether next year’s flu vaccine ( I should say 2009’s) will include this current profile will need to be decided ASAP by the CDC. The WHO raised the global alert level to 5 today, which means that a pandemic is inevitable-the definitions of pandemic are located on the WHO;s website. Don’t know how many heard/saw Director of WHO warn this afternoon about danger to the entire human population-quite sobering and even network news anchors called it scary. </p>
<p>While I agree with annual flu morbidity and mortality data, the “unknown” about a new virus which is spreading so quickly and seems to be targeting an age group of 15-58,59 year old citizens is a variable that physicians and nurses look at as great cause for concern. One challenge will be what a campus does when one student is formally diagnosed with H1N1-especially during exams-will the campus close or remain open for the sake of the exam schedule. </p>
<p>We all need to have an organized action plan with each of our kids about what to look for and how to take care of yourself if you are not well, etc. Check with college’s infirmary and see if they have a contingency plan in place. Let’s hope we get all of our children home before it affects their individual schools.</p>
<p>I just spoke with a pulmonologist (lung doc). There is an international conference scheduled for San Diego in mid-May that she & I and about 15,000-18,000 lung specialists are scheduled to attend. It is the BIGGEST international conference of its kind in the world every year. </p>
<p>One of her friends D’s is scheduled to give a presentation & had to get special health insurance to come to the conference because her regular health insurer refused to cover her if she flew to present. As of this moment, I & the lung docs I know are all planning to attend, but it is a fluid situation and we will cancel if conditions appear to warrant it.</p>
<p>Was supposed to attend a meeting in Bethesda in June, but may not go there since it’s SO MANY flights & so many hours of travel from here (HI) to there & back. More & more folks are suggesting I not go; will weigh the options & decide as events develop.</p>
<p>S is still planning to travel a lot this summer, including Bejing. Will see how it all works out.</p>
<p>Thank goodness our family vacation to Mexico was LAST week! We didn’t listen to any news all week, so we couldn’t figure out why we saw a couple of people wearing surgical masks on Saturday. No symptoms yet, but my kids are really getting interrogated by their friends about how they’re feeling!</p>
<p>I think a friend of mine has the flu right now. We have no idea if its the swine flu or not because she can not afford to go to a doctor. It seems to be a mild case and she is starting to get over it.</p>
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<p>I think they have a prototype vaccine (not sure what the technical term is here) for swine flu, but the WHO is holding off production of it for now because that would necessitate the halting of production of seasonal flu vaccines.</p>
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<p>Actually - that didn’t happen, not until the main danger was over and the schools were ready to be reopened. Most of my friends stayed home. I sure did. Once, I popped out to grab some food from the convenience store and what struck me was how much like a ghost town my corner of Singapore was - not a single person in sight at 1 PM on a weekday.</p>
<p>(One minor gaffe was that the suspension of school was announced on 1 April. Fortunately I had an uncle working at Singapore Press Holdings who called the day before to tell us that it was NOT a joke.)</p>
<p>All students here were issued a thermometer and all students took their temperatures in class twice a day (I think it was twice - once at the start of the school day and another after lunch). Any student with a temperature above 38 deg C (or 37.6? can’t remember) was sent home immediately. At home, too, my sister and I checked our temperatures in the morning before leaving for school. This is a habit that would be good to pick up now.</p>
<p>I had a friend who used the opportunity of two weeks’ break from school to visit family in Taiwan which had been free of SARS till then. While she was there, Taiwan began reporting cases of SARS too, and after she returned she had to be quarantined for an additional two weeks - so she missed four weeks of school.</p>
<p>They’ve repeated the temperature-taking exercises yearly since and it’s been quite an annoyance, but needless to say everyone will be thankful for the infrastructure and experience now.</p>
<p>Univ of Delaware- 10 suspected H1N1 flu cases, they canceled a concert and lecture tonight.</p>
<p>I’ve always disliked those schools that give awards for “no days missed.” At the very least this type of global awareness about how illnesses are spread will cause the extinction of the “no days missed” awards. I also get “ticked” when co-workers come to work sneezing, coughing and clearly not well and say “I have alittle cold.” Jeesh, have some respect for others.</p>
<p>Yes, my kids have always been penalized because we all agree they should be home when they’re ill rather than out spreading germs “virtuously.” I was at a meeting yesterday when one guy with a nasty cough gave me a hug & kiss (UGH) & later at the pharmacy where the tech was obviously sick–coughing, sneezing & blowing her nose AND didn’t have our Rx med though it had been promised & they never called to say it hadn’t come in! I was very upset & left to go to another register where the person wasn’t sick.</p>
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<p>My question as well!! I am in Houston, and so far 3 schools have closed, including Episcopal High School, but no district wide closures yet.</p>
<p>What will happen with the scheduled AP tests? It’s bad enough that TAKS had to be rescheduled because of the flooding this week, but now the Swine Flu!! Not to mention the 2 weeks lost in the fall due to Hurricane Ike! When will it end???</p>
<p>So, any thoughts or answers on the AP/IB tests? Aren’t they a nationally standard test? Seems like they’d have to have either 2 sets on different dates or postpone the rest of the country to get in line with the closed school districts/schools. I surely hope they aren’t going to tell those affected kids that they are SOL and all their hard work and preparation this year are for nothing!!</p>
<p>I just looked it up on collegeboard.com and there are two “late testing” days, so unless a student has more than 2 tests, they should be able to make up the tests on those days. If they have more than 2, provisions will have to be made!</p>
<p>I am worried about this swine flu outbreak and D goes to school right outside NYC. She is in and out of the city on the public transit all the time. I am wondering if the school has taken any steps at all, even if it is just to inform and educate the students. I don’t want to call and add to the stress, but wouldn’t you think they would at least send an e-mail to parents to allay any fears? Have any of you called?</p>
<p>Have you looked on the school’s website to see if they have some sort of message?</p>
<p>D’s school (in CT) has sent two university-wide e-mails (including to parents of undergrads) explaining the facts so far known about the virus, what is being done at the school, precautions to take, etc. The messages are also posted on the website.</p>