H1N1 - Worried Sick for my Family

I don't know if this thing about H1N1 is being blown out of proportion or not but it sure scares me like hell. Not so for us adults but more so for my very young children. I have been googling trying to find out more but still getting the same generic info. Particularly high risk to those with medical problems, pregnant ladies, old people and children below 5years -- my children!

The Star news alerts which I subscribed from Maxis is not helping either. I get 'gleeful' death counts and people infected counts on daily basis .. and the number is increasing. What I don't get is what exactly happened. My husband has a doctor friend who actually commented that this H1N1 is not as scary as we think. Could be just a matter of opinion. He told us that the critical and casualties were mainly due to late or no treatment.

Well, whatever the case is, I have a baby and 2 very young boys. Even simple pneumonia is not something to be taken lightly. So, how so to prevent? I really don't know. I have heard that the mask is not really effective too. And how can I expect my 3 year old and baby to wear mask?? Short of becoming a hermit with our own food supply grown in the backyard, there is no 100% avoidance of H1N1... that's a scary thought.

During my recent visit to my doc (I was having a common flu), I had a chat with the doc. About vaccines and so forth. He told me that they are expecting the vaccine to come to Malaysia in Dec 09 and even so, the frontliners (ie hospitals, nurses and docs) will be given priority. By then, a lot more casualties would have happened. And then, there is this uncertainty about new drugs and their side effects. Sigh!

People around us are still traveling - probably because they had a great deal from the last MATTA fair - as well as being sent by their own company. No strict rules around that. Some people who came back visiting high risk countries just went about without self quarantine (in case they are in the incubation period). How irresponsible can you get?? Some companies treat H1N1 positive cases confidentially - no quarantine or even reporting to the Health Ministry. It is no wonder the virus spread!! On the other hand, I have heard some responsible company actually test their staff temperature every day before they get into the office and they have rules around people having flu (H1N1 or not) and travelling.

So I did the little I can do to help my family.

1. Increase Vit C intake (myth or not - I'll talk about this later)
2. For my husband and I - added Vit E and Garlic (Antioxidants)
3. Multi vits for my two boys
4. Appeton Infant drops for my baby girl
5. Scott's Emulsion for my boys
6. Plenty of water
7. People told me to take cooling drinks - eg herbal drinks ('leong sui'), coconut water , barley, fresh fruit juices
8. Double Boiled Snow Frog/'Suet kap' to reinforced the lungs amongst others - see here for recipe: http://www.joanne-momsays.blogspot.com/2009/05/snow-jelly-or-suet-kap-in-cantonese.html)
9. Keeping the house clean with disinfectant (Dettol)
10. Not touching the kids after a day's work until I wash my hands
11. Washing up my kids after a trip out

Now about pneumococcal vaccine, I just don't how true but a friend of mine was given an advice by his doctor to take pneumococcal vaccine to protect against pneumonia. I googled up and found an article about it but it is not exactly conclusive. For kids, the jab which is normally recommended by the pediatrician is Prevenar. But this is not part of the vaccine schedule - just an option and it's quite procey. My kids took it coz they are quite prone to high fever and ear infection to which this vaccine can help. As for the adults, the pneumococcal vaccine is not Prevenar but something else. Gotta ask the doc.

I really hope that this H1N1 thingy will be under control real soon. I get real upset when I hear that a child becomes a victim of the virus.