DS age 13 too much travel might = swine flu?

[Starmummy]

I need some clarification on Swime flu please. I live in Dubai and information here is seriously curtailed. After all its is called swine flu in a Muslim country. sigh....

Anyway Ds (13 yo) is in UK, in Somerset, where I understand (I think) that a healthy child has died. He has travelled quite a lot over the last few weeks. Dubai to Norway via Heathrow to camp with 6000 other scouts, then from Heathrow to Somerset, on Thursday he flies to Leeds, then in a few weeks he is abck to somerset, then back to Leeds then back to Dubai.

He is visitng his grandparents in both locations and both sets of GrandParents are elderly. Should I be worried for them or for him? I have read the procedure if you are sick is to call the GP not visit.

Basically I guess I just want to know if I am unreasonable to expose him to so much travel or if it is all hyped a bit out of control.

TIA

Bump please, as he is due to fly today plse.

Hi Starmummy, I'm not an expert on this AT ALL, but didn't want your post to go unanswered. I think you are not unreasonable to expose him to so much travel AND that it is not hyped out of control. Where I am, in London, swine flu really is spreading very fast and there are probably not many workplaces or families still unaffected. BUT for the vast majority of people it is not a serious illness. I know some young people without serious underlying health problems have died, but that is really very rare. I expect that all the plane travel will be upping your son's risks, but are they upping them more than if you lived in East London? I doubt it.

As for the grandparents, for some reason swine flu seems less of a threat to the elderly than normal flu.

Personally, I would be deciding to keep calm and go ahead with your plans. But why not ring your doctor and ask for advice?

Oh, last thing: yes, if you are sick the thing to do is to ring GP, not visit (the last thing we need is all our health professionals going off sick!)

Thanks Hester

He did fly, and seems more than ok. Happy to see all his friends I suspect. I have been trying to keep up with info from the Uk but when you see it on here it seems out of control but then almost all of us are mothers and we all worry about our loved ones. I have told him to call the GP if he is sick as my mother probably wont bother, shes very much of the grin and bear it school of medicine.

thanks again.

Glad he's ok, Starmummy. It must be worrying having him so far away from you, without good quality information. Hope he enjoys his holiday