Every holiday season, millions of Americans travel to spend time and celebrate with their friends and family. In preparation for these busy travel days, crowded airports, and bustling holiday parties, the CDC has launched the National Travelers’ Health Public Awareness Campaign to help travelers prepare for their trips and stay healthy throughout the holiday season.
The CDC urges people to stay informed about what to do if they get sick while they’re away and to take the following steps when planning their travel:
- Travel only when you are feeling well.
- Wash your hands often, and carry alcohol-based hand sanitizer to use when warm water and soap aren’t available.
- Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue or use your inner elbow, rather than your hands.
- Get vaccinated for both seasonal and H1N1 flu, once they are available, especially if you are a member of a priority group.
You can find more information on the Campaign on the CDC’s website at http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/content/novel-h1n1-flu.aspx.
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My one-year-old daughter's pediatric practice has adopted a practice of refusing all children their second H1N1 flu shot until all children in the practice have had their first. They told me this when they phoned to cancel my daughter's Dec. 14th appointment. I've since heard from many other parents that their doctors' offices have adopted the same policy. Some believe the policy is mandated by the CDC, others that it originates with the Mass. DPH; still others told me they've heard it's considered a matter of fairness. I keep finding one widely publicized pilot study that showed kids under 2 had only a 25% chance of developing immunity to H1N1 with one shot, but the second shot provided all the kids with immunity. I think this policy might make sense for seasonal flu virus (which often isn't prevalent before December), but given that H1N1 has been widespread in Massachusetts for weeks now, this seems more of a recipe to guarantee the maximum number of unprotected kids for the longest possible time. Certainly 75% of the under-twos who see my daughter's doctor can expect to remain unprotected until after New Year's.
I would appreciate any insight into this policy that you can provide. Am I missing something? Does the policy originate with a public health agency?
Posted by: Thomas Donaghey | November 25, 2009 at 08:17 PM
My 25 year old daughter has all of the symptoms of H1N1 flu, particularly high fever and muscles aches and pains, as well as some cold symptoms and a bad sore throat. She went to see her doctor this morning, and was seen by her nurse practitioner, who diagnosed her with an "upper respiratory bacterial infection" and gave her an antibiotic and an inhaler. Her symptoms were so obviously flu, yet when she called the NP later this afternoon to ask how to treat it-especially the severe muscle pain, the NP brushed her off and insisted that it was the bacterial infection that"a lot of people have" and refused to consider a diagnosis of flu. My daughter believes that there is a conspiracy among the health providers across the state to avoid diagnosing people with flu so as not to panic the general population. I am beginning to think she is correct. There seems to be no H1N1 flu vaccine anywhere in the state for children in their teens and early 20's.
Posted by: Susan Cholakis | November 25, 2009 at 06:05 PM
I am traveling to China on December 24, returning January 2. I have read in the news that China has widespread H1N1 flu and that 80% of all flu in China is supposedly of the H1N1 variety. I am a normally healthy male, 50 years old, father of 3 kids ages 9, 7, and 6. I have been able to get the kids their H1N1 vaccinations, but it would seem prudent for me to be vaccinated before going to a high-risk country like China, yet I can find no doctors sympathetic to my cause... they all stick to the stringent guidelines that seem to exclude me at present. Should I be vaccinated for H1N1 before traveling to China, or is the shark move here to risk importing the virus into the U.S. when I return?
Posted by: Keith E. Herzog | November 24, 2009 at 12:36 AM