From the category archives:
Here are this week’s H1N1 updates from the HealthMap team of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program.
Thanks to H1N1, Halloween came on November 15 for the Lord and Ladies of the Cyr household
My wife, Sara, and I are the proud parents of newly minted 4-year-old triplets, and this fall we just haven’t been able to get healthy in our house. We get over one illness and another one crops up a week later. Fevers come and go. Coughs are incessant. Headaches bloom and recede. It’s been never-ending.
So none of us was feeling particularly well on the Thursday before Halloween when Sara called me at work and told me she had spiked a fever. We weren’t sure it was H1N1, but working in the Public Affairs Department here at Children’s Hospital Boston, I spend much of my time communicating about swine flu, so I know fever is one of the bellwether symptoms. Alarm bells started going off in my head because, unfortunately, like the rest of the poor, huddled masses, the Cyrs were waiting for the H1N1 vaccine to be made available.
As soon as I got home from work, I shuttled Sara off to her parents’ house and called my parents to come help me with the kids. The next day was relatively quiet; Sara was miserable but quarantined (and, frankly, enjoying the room service and uninterrupted silence), and the kids and I were doing OK.
Then came Saturday, October 31. [click to continue…]
Here are this week’s H1N1 updates from the HealthMap team of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program.
We’ve received a lot of questions from parents who want to know if the H1N1 vaccine is safe for children with asthma and what complications could result if an asthmatic child is infected with H1N1. We consulted with Children’s Hospital Boston’s associate chief of general pediatrics, Joanne Cox, MD, and reviewed the latest reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to bring you the most recent information. [click to continue…]
Here are this week’s H1N1 updates from the HealthMap team of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program.
Most children have some fear of needles and may get scared before a vaccination. You might think the best way to handle this anxiety is to avoid telling your child about a vaccination ahead of time. But, like usual, honesty is the best strategy. Here, Child Life specialists offer tips and techniques for preparing your child for vaccination.
Before the vaccination
By Aaron Bernstein, MD, MPH, physician in Medicine at Children’s and faculty, Center for Health and the Global Environment
Sometimes the best perspectives come from far away places and few places are farther from Boston than Singapore, a small yet highly developed island nation in southeast Asia where I spent much of October.
The distance between Boston and Singapore is more than geographic, however. While I was away, H1N1 reclaimed the national spotlight back home. Not a day went by without mention of it in the news. It became the topic of conversation among doctors and patients everywhere. Well, almost everywhere. [click to continue…]
Joanne Cox, MD, director of Children’s Hospital Boston’s Primary Care Center, answers questions about H1N1 during this Karson & Kennedy Morning Show on MIX 104.1. She dispels common myths and answers questions about the swine flu virus and vaccine, like:
How do you know if you have regular flu or H1N1?
Can you be immune if you’ve already had swine flu?
Is there harmful mercury in the vaccine?
