As school revs-up for yet another year, we parents begin it with a sense of uncertainty that is different from all others before. We're all wondering what effect the Swine Flu will have on our schools and our own individual children. More importantly, we're wondering about the best way to keep our children and their classmates safe.
Recently one federal report predicted as many as 30 to 50 percent of Americans may contract the Swine Flu in the upcoming year. Government predictions about a variety of topics have been wrong before. So there is just no real way of knowing how bad it's going to be.
We do know that a Swine Flu vaccine is expected to be ready in mid-October. It will not be mandatory, but highly recommended, particularly for children and young adults, who are at greatest risk for the Swine Flu. The Swine Flu vaccine will not protect against the seasonal flu, so health experts are also recommending that people get a seasonal flu vaccine in addition to the Swine Flu vaccine.
Athough a Swine Flu vaccine will be available in October, health experts have been concerned that the Swine Flu might mutate and change to a different strain, thus rendering the Swine Flu vaccine useless. Experts are less concerned about that happening. Recently it was discovered the Swine Flu does not appear to have the tendency to mutate.
In just the first week of classes, college campuses are seeing a huge numbers of students, in the thousands, who have already come down with the Swine Flu. The good news is that so far we have no reports of kids who have died or have even been hospitalized. The kids are getting it, then recovering from it.
Of the over 500 deaths in America from the Swine Flu since it broke-out in our country last spring, a large number are among people who already had health concerns such as asthma or diabetes.
The Swine Flu is contracted in the same way as the seasonal flu. You get it from someone else who has it. The best way to protect yourself is to practice good hygiene. That means washing your hands often, particularly before you eat or touch your eyes or nose.