With H1N1 still very much in the news and seasonal flu getting ready to make its debut, Children’s Hospital Boston doctors are reminding everyone not to overlook another bug that should be getting more attention — respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. A study of children age 7 and younger coming to Children’s Emergency Department with acute respiratory illnesses found that those infected with RSV had more than twice as many emergency department visits and six times more hospitalizations than those with seasonal flu. Full story »
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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. Full story »
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Here’s a quick look at what Thrive was up to last week.
Read why the days of jumping back into a game after a possible concussion are over. A new study shows that adult survivors of childhood cancer are much more likely to experience suicidal thoughts than their peers. Children’s expert Ellen Hanson, PhD, questions whether autism really is on the rise. An experimental heart valve saves a child with H1N1. Children’s has established and unprecedented partnership with the state’s largest health plans. The HealthMap team gives its weekly H1N1 update. Children’s Dennis Rosen, MD, questions whether sleeping late can keep your child slim and Joanne Cox, MD, answers parents’ questions about H1N1. Our resident mediatrician tackles the question of graphic violent and sexual images in the media and a teen guest blogger writes about teens and self-esteem.
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The Swiss drug maker, Novartis, says it will meet the United State’s H1N1 vaccine order on time and new research shows that people on cholesterol-lowering drugs are twice as likely to survive seasonal flu hospitalizations. The World Health Organization announced, again, that the H1N1 vaccine is safe and that one dose is enough for everyone except children under the age of 10, who need two doses. NPR’s Morning Edition interviewed Children’s experts about what parents should do when they think their child has the flu.
Does your toddler have enough educational toys? This writer argues you should hand her an iphone. We know that you’re proud of your kid, but could all of that bragging end up hurting them? Down syndrome births are way down in the United States. ABC news explores why.
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Here’s a look at what Thrive was up to last week.
Frances Jensen, MD, senior associate in Neurology, was featured in a piece on 60 Minutes about the prevalence of epilepsy and the importance of funding research that can lead to its cure. It’s clearer than ever before: American children are suffering from a Vitamin D deficiency. A novel surgery saves one baby’s vision. The HealthMap team gives our weekly H1N1 update. Children’s doctors talk about how easily H1N1 spreads and Dr. Sanjay Gupta visits Children’s. Our Mediatrician tackles “slut lists” and a Children’s expert offers parents a guide to a healthful Halloween.
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Surgeons put an artificial bone in a 3-year-old’s arm. Parents can use these guidelines for letting their diabetic kids enjoy Halloween’s treats.
Listen to the new guidelines being reviewed by British doctors that would lower the country’s age limit for transgender patients receiving puberty-blocking drugs. The segment begins at the 34 minute marker.
Multiple studies show how pregnant women getting the flu vaccine is an important way to protect their babies. Sesame Street characters Elmo and Rosita show your child the right way to sneeze. Last weekend, Emergency Department doctors at Children’s began seeing increases in what they think are swine flu cases and Judy Palfrey, MD, FAAP, comments on the Obama girls getting the flu shot. Have you ever wondered how the flu virus spreads? Watch this video to see how.
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Ron Samuels, MD, MPH, associate medical director of the Children’s Hospital Primary Care Center, was interviewed last night on New England Cable News about how quickly and widely H1N1 can spread compared to the seasonal flu, the importance of mass vaccination and how Children’s is having a high volume of patients with flu-like illness in its emergency room.
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Here are this week’s H1N1 updates from the HealthMap team of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program.
- Serbia, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Finland, Russia, and the U.S. state of North Dakota have all reported their first H1N1 deaths.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that there have been 414,945 confirmed cases of H1N1 worldwide, and nearly 5,000 deaths.
- The WHO’s Director-General Margaret Chan also stated that the pandemic would reach its natural end when enough people had become immunized.
- United States President Barack Obama declared H1N1 (swine flu) a national emergency, as the US death toll surpassed 1,000.
- Also in the United States, manufacturing difficulties are delaying the delivery of the H1N1 vaccine. The CDC said that only 16.1 million out of an expected 30 million doses had been shipped. While H1N1 vaccine shipment is delayed, increases in school closures, hospitalization rates, and 11 more pediatric influenza-related deaths point to an intensifying pandemic throughout the US.
Photo courtesy of: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/News/948015/Government-releases-new-set-swine-flu-ads/
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