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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think parents who refuse to let their children mix with my ds because he goes to a school closed for pig flu are idiots

140 replies

TheDullWitch · 06/05/2009 20:59

DS1's school is closed because of pig flu, he's taking Tamiflu - although he has no symptoms whatsoever. The health advice is, he can go anywhere, mix with anyone. DS2 is going in every day to his different school. Even so friends have cancelled their visit because they're worried about catching it! The hysteria is ridiculous.

OP posts:
welshbyrd · 07/05/2009 18:30

The point of being a parent is to make choices, good or bad regarding your child

Not all people agree with you, not all people disagree with you

I think on the whole though, as its their children, you need to respect the wishes of all the parents.

NotmyELFtoday · 07/05/2009 19:06

part of me things that it may be easier to get it now to have some sort of anti-bodies if there is a "second wave" later in the year. But i'm not sure if that is just misguided

Northernlurker · 07/05/2009 19:11

OP - I think your friends are idiots too. It's a generally MILD illness that your son doesn't even have.

TweetleBeetle · 07/05/2009 19:12

What makes anyone think that getting flu is easy????

MintyyAeroEgg · 07/05/2009 19:14

Hmmmm. I think "idiotic" is unnecessarily insulting.

I live in the area and don't mix in your circle but I would not ask our regular All*s babysitter neighbour to sit for my dc atm. Even though we bumped into her in Somerfield the other day!

Its not the same as chicken pox is it?

Also, if you are convinced none of you are incubating it, why are you giving your ds Tamiflu?

NotmyELFtoday · 07/05/2009 19:16

maybe "easier" wasn't the right word for it. but it is confusing at the minute, the amount of different opinions there are. for example, on the radio today, they were talking about how schools should not close so that people are exposed to a (in the uk) fairly mild version of the flu (compared to other parts of the world it seems) which gives the opinion that if there was a "second wave" then people would be immune. but then another voice will argue it will make no difference if people have it now if there is a second wave, as it doesn't mean people wont get it twice.

nurseynurse · 07/05/2009 19:19

surely the more people the virus effects then the more it is likely to mutate and become more resilient to treatment, arent we supposed to be containing it with the aim to irradicate it,I cant see why people would want it at all, first time or second time around.

rutyfruty · 07/05/2009 19:22

Complacency is the unfortunate flip side of panic.

FairLadyRantALot · 07/05/2009 19:24

but flu strains, well...they don't work the way that exposure to "mild versions" will stop you having whatever severe version later....well...if that was so, we all would be living in a world where we wouldn't be getting any flues because we have been exposed to milder versions...

I turely think there is a lot of media hype...but....on the other hand I truely don't understand why on one hand the Op's Kids school is closed, even though all the Kids there are treated with the antiviral, but are, on the other hand told they can mix wiht anyone, etc...it doesn't make sense at all...

And whilst I think the media hype is rubbish, of course, if I knew someone had been exposed, etc...I possibly wouldn't purposely mix with them...

whomovedmychocolate · 07/05/2009 20:20

The other thing about the get it first, get it over with mentality is - you may actually be risking your life. I had flu two years ago, afterwards for another reason I had a cardiac scan, and some damage to the heart muscle was noted. I talked to the cardiologist and he said it's actually not that unusual to have vital organs damaged by major illness including influenza and while the body recovers over the course of about a year, in that period you are pretty weakened to further damage from infections.

Which is why old folk can drop dead of a common cold, if your lungs are basically fucked, it's so much easier to develop pneumonia, or heart failure.

IWantedThatName · 07/05/2009 20:56

The other thing is that if you deliberately contract through you are likely to pass it on to someone else - maintaining the community presence of teh virus - and risking that person you pass it to being not as fit as you.....

The only way the flu virus can replicate is to be present in a body. The only way the flu virus can mutate (to become this potentually deadly virus) is to be replicating in a body.

It is irresponsible to deliberately allow (or risk allowing) this virus to replicate.

whomovedmychocolate · 07/05/2009 21:00

I also question whether you can take multiple courses of antivirals? I don't know enough about Tamiflu or the other one Relenza?

If you are taking it when you don't have symptoms rather than with 48 hours of first presentation of symptoms, you're jumping the gun and taking a drug with strong side effects, pretty much blindly hoping it might help if you get it.

So what happens two months later when you do get it, can you take more Tamiflu, will it work? Will the virus get smart and learn to avoid the way Tamiflu works?

whomovedmychocolate · 07/05/2009 21:06

Blimey Wikipedia agrees with me! Oh and apparently Tamiflu is banned in Japan for 10-18 year olds because it is thought it might cause self-harming/suicidal tendencies .

IWantedThatName · 07/05/2009 21:07

Tamiflu is approved for prophylaxis (prevention). It is - accordning the the label - suitable for use for 6weeks.

It is also believed that the risk of resistance is low (but not zero) as the molecular target doesn't tend to evolve.

tatt · 08/05/2009 09:11

I don't want my child taking Tamiflu - so I wouldn't want them to visit you. If your child was at the school but hadn't been given Tamiflu then I might. Different people have different attitudes to risk. The risk of your child having swine flu is remote and we'd be at more risk if we drove there. However there are enough problems in my life already, why add another worry for the sake of a few days?

Elibean · 08/05/2009 09:43

Not black and white, in the case of OP's ds and playdates - he's almost certainly not infectious, if still well now - I think its a personal call, but I certainly wouldn't judge people cancelling. Playdates aren't that important, in the long term.

BUT wanted to stress: 'catching 'mild' version would make you immune to more virulent winter version' is simply not valid. Viruses mutate, and no one knows (based on info from relative who is consultant microbiologist/virologist and in touch with all the labs).

Piggy flu parties...honestly...

DoNotAnnoy · 08/05/2009 13:34

The reason that the schools are closed by the way is not just about human to human transfer. It is about the fact that (apparently) the virus can survive for 7 days on surfaces....so it is contact with those surfaces which is just as important as teh contact with the other people at the school.

Niecie · 08/05/2009 13:41

The NHS website says that virus only live for 24 hours on hard surfaces not a week.

DoNotAnnoy · 08/05/2009 13:57

Appologies - I thought that it was the NHS advert on the radio which was saying 7 days.Maybe it was Dettol or something.

They will want to ensure it is clear though.

OhYouBadBadPig · 08/05/2009 14:56

Also, the HPA advice says that incubation can be up to 7 days here
So they will want to make sure that no new cases are emerging in that time.

OhYouBadBadPig · 08/05/2009 15:59

And here you can see why they are taking these precautions:
bbc news link about 5 more cases connected with a school

TotallyAndUtterlyPaninied · 08/05/2009 16:15

Although I don't believe in the swine flu hysteria, I wouldn't risk my DS getting ill at all.

Awful for your DS as it's not his fault and he's not even got it. Rationally, there's no need to cancel. But it has become such a huge thing now that people are in panic and do not want to risk their children. I think if I were you, I'd just be understanding of that until it's blown over in a few days.

corblimeymadam · 08/05/2009 22:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Musukebba · 08/05/2009 22:14

Just to pick up on a few points about anti-influenza drugs like oseltamivir (aka 'Tamiflu')...

It's a much better drug for prophylaxis than as a treatment, partly because it works at the end of the virus life-cycle in the cell. Definitely one of the antiviral drugs that the earlier you take it, the better. Therefore it's entirely possible that taking it merely after being exposed to a swine flu case may seem apparently useless, if all you use as your measure is that you don't go on and get ill. However bear in mind that it could have been the Tamiflu working and it was that which prevented you from actually becoming ill.

Resistance to oseltamivir is conferred by a single point mutation that is very easy for the virus to acquire randomly. In fact last winter many seasonal H1N1 (ie non-swine flu) influenza viruses were already resistant to oseltamivir; and something of a prospective public health and diagnostic headache for 2009/2010 even without the swine flu problem.

Viruses resistant to oseltamivir are almost certainly still going to be sensitive to zanamivir but that drug is a powder that has to be inhaled: not always great for people suffering from a respiratory infection.

IMO with all the knowledge we have about influenza viruses, there comes some responsibility. Who would be the first to say it was still right to knowingly expose someone to swine flu; after they later died of complications that we absolutely know will occur every year in seasonal flu?

MollieO · 08/05/2009 22:23

If there is no risk and every one is on Tamiflu then why is the school shut? Makes no sense to me. It is fee paying isn't it and exam time so if I were a parent with a child at that school who has been told what you are saying then I would want to know.

Ds has a compromised immune system so we won't be coming round to play