10 Tips: Children/travel/influenza/prevention

December 4, 2008

Posted in Outdoor Recreation, Safe & Healthy Travel 1 Comment »
Tags: flu, flu outbreak, flu season, Vaccine

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You need not go traveling to catch the flu – but it does help. Weekends visiting out-of-town relatives, skiing holidays, cruises, and air travel, for example, place your kids in close contact with people from different localities near and far. In flu season (December through March), there is a fair chance that someone in the crowd is already infected. And these viruses like nothing better than to infect more people and continue hopscotching hither and yon. Unless your family is vaccinated, your child may be the baton that introduces flu into your home community. 

Here are some facts on flu and travel.

1. The more you travel, especially in groups, the greater the risk of contracting the flu. People who travel together become ill together. The Centers for Disease Control recommends flu vaccine for travelers during flu season, specifically for those going on cruises and on organized tours.

2. The risk of acquiring flu during air travel appears to be small.  Cabin air is replaced every few minutes with air from outside (air at high altitudes is sterile) or recycled through sophisticated filters. But these organisms can survive for days on seats and armrests.  Washing your and your infant’s hands and wiping surfaces with appropriate disinfectants may reduce risk. If possible, change seats if a nearby passenger coughs and sneezes.

3. During flu outbreaks percentage-wise, more children than adults are stricken. Adults may possess some residual immunity from previous flu illnesses/immunizations, possibly preventing or ameliorating subsequent attacks. Once children are infected, they harbor the virus for longer than adults and become major sources of transmission.  

4. Flu is a more serious disease for children than most parents realize. Most affected children require medical care. In the U.S., each year about 20,000 children under the age of five years are hospitalized due to flu; most of these are under the age of two.  During the 2007-08 flu season, 86 children died from flu-related causes. Children with chronic health problems such as asthma and diabetes are most subject to complications.

5. Flu vaccination must be repeated each year. Flu viruses undergo continuous   change. Vaccines are reformulated yearly based on ongoing surveillance of flu activity around the world.  Experts then select strains likely to circulate the following flu season.

6. Most years, flu vaccines are quite effective, but don’t expect miracles. The vaccines significantly reduce the incidence of flu-related illness but some years strains come along that are not well covered by the vaccines. 

However, flu vaccines do not significantly reduce the total number of “flu-like” upper respiratory infections (URIs) which children experience.  Children in day care or preschool, for example, have one to two URIs a month during the flu season, largely due to the countless other cold viruses that circulate. And children who travel are exposed to additional cold viruses, ones that do not circulate in their home communities.

7. No flu vaccine is available for infants less than 6 months of age. This is the age group most likely to have severe disease. These infants are best protected by vaccinating all other family members and close contacts and by minimizing exposure. For infants with health problems, consider delaying nonessential travel until after the flu season or until infants reach six month of age. 

8.  Optimum protection for travel requires advanced planning.  Children receiving flu vaccine for the first time need two doses, given at least one month apart. Significant immunity begins two weeks after the second dose. Children (and adults) previously vaccinated require only one dose, with immunity also taking two weeks to develop.

9. Acquiring flu from the vaccine is a myth.  Years ago flu vaccines were less refined and sometimes caused “flu-like” side-reactions such as aches and pain and fever, but never the flu. Now vaccines are better and side-reactions tend to be minimal.  Another reason for the myth:  non-flu URIs are so common in children (and to a lesser extent, in adults) that, by chance, such illnesses occur soon after flu vaccination, and are erroneously blamed on the vaccine. 

10. Check the current flu activity at your destination (within the United States). Google reports the daily flu activity for each state at  http://www.google.org/flutrends.  On December 4^th 2008, for example,  activity was low in all states except for Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, Vermont, and Virginia.  These five states had moderate activity. 

Posted in Outdoor Recreation, Safe & Healthy Travel 1 Comment »
Tags: flu, flu outbreak, flu season, Vaccine