5 Things parents Need to Know about the H1N1 Flu Virus

As a parent, you need to be aware of 5 basic steps to keep your family healthy and keep flu from spreading in your community.

1. Make prevention the first line of defense.

Everyone needs to make it a routine to wash their hands often with soap and water. Remind your family to cough or sneeze into their sleeves or into a tissue, not in their hands. These steps are easy, but they only work if every member of the family participates.

2 . Make sure you and your entire family gets vaccinated.

Vaccines are the best means we have to make sure families and communities are protected from flu. The vaccine for the seasonal flu is available now and the H1N1 vaccine will be available this fall. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, and the Food and Drug Administration are working around the clock with vaccine manufacturers to make sure that flu vaccines are safe and effective.

3 .Keep your children home if they’re sick.

If you’re sick, stay home as well. H1N1 spreads rapidly among kids and young adults; it’s especially risky if you’re pregnant. Look for these symptoms: Similar to seasonal flu, with H1N1 you’ll get a fever, cough, sore throat, stuffy nose; achiness, headache, chills and fatigue. Sometimes H1N1 causes diarrhea and vomiting. Both H1N1 and seasonal flu can be severe and occasionally deadly.

4 .Start planning now in the event that one of your kids gets the flu.

Ask yourself these questions: If you work, have you made arrangements for child care? Have you talked with your employer about what to do in case you need to be out?

5 .Go to flu.gov for the latest information on H1N1 and seasonal flu.

Flu.gov is a one-stop government wide resource with planning tools for parents to be prepared for the 2009 flu season.

(From the Department of Health & Human Services)