MEMPHIS, Tenn – Children have become the smallest victims in a big flu season.
At LeBonheur Children’s Hospital the cases keep coming.
“We have had several hundred children in the emergency department everyday the last couple of weeks who are sick with some sort of respiratory issue. About 50 to 100 of them a day are turning up positive for flu right now. The most common symptoms are fever, cough, muscle aches.
Very small children may have diarrhea or vomiting along with it, but really that fever and cough are the main symptoms we are seeing,” says Dr. Jon McCullers, Pediatrician in Chief at LeBonheur.
He says the number of flu cases isn’t usually this high until kids go back to school after the holidays,giving you an idea that it will only get worse once school starts.
“Typically if we see this activity, we are gonna see more once the kids go back to school. They pass it around the school and we get outbreaks during that period,” says Dr. McCullers.
It’s why parents are urged to make sure their kids have the flu shot and take precautions.
“Stay away from those who are sick. Wash your hands. Use good hand hygiene with a hand sanitizer. Cough into your sleeve,” says Dr. McCullers.
They are warnings that all of us can heed because all of us can be susceptible in the least expected places.
From the door knobs we touch, the gym equipment we use, to the keyboards we click, germs are everywhere.
“You could become contaminated, but try to keep from infecting yourself touching around your nose and your mouth. We inadvertently touch around these area, the mucus membrane, where the germs can get in,” says Dr. Helen Morrow with the Shelby County Health Department.
That is why hand sanitizer may need to be your new best friend.
If you or you child have symptoms of the flu, see your doctor right away. The anti-viral drugs they can give are most effective in the first two days of the virus.
Other children in your house may also get treated to decrease their chance of getting the flu.
