Two children at school off with Swine flu...but school has not told other parents

[Ripeberry]

And the mum of one of the children comes back up to the school with the 'ill' child who relishes every moment of it.
Yesterday she came right up to us and said 'I've got swine flu', so we just said 'Keep away from us then'.
But if she really had it, should the mum NOT be bringing her back up to school to pick up her sibling.
At least keep her in the car. Even heard another mum today telling her to stay in the car.
I say she 'relishes every moment'as she is skipping and jumping around at the same time as barking her head off with a nasty cough

If the child has SF then they should be home getting better, until the symptoms have gone.

However there is no need for school to inform parents if children within the school community have SF.

Has the child been diagnosed officially (i.e with positve swap) for SF or just using th checklist?

there are so many with it now schools would be ahrd pressed to put a letter out every time someone gets it

Just using the checklist, problem is there are quite a few pregnant mums at the school and they should have a right to know.

Doesn't sound like swine flu to me - I've had it and I couldn't have skipped if even if someone had put a firework in my knickers. Bit of attention-seeking going on.

Actually this could be my ds who had SW over the weekend - the dancing around bit - not gallavating outside his school. It only lasted a couple of days, especially as taking tamiflu, and was no different to a bad cold.

I wouldn't rely on an NHS checklist tbh. I looked the other day about this tingling sensation in my arm which comes and goes. According to the NHS checklist I should be phoning for an ambulance immediately - possible heart attack.

So I doubt if they've got swine flu at all.

Swine flu can be mild it depends on who gets it however with seasonal flu and bad colds doing the rounds unless you are tested you don't know if you've had it or not really.

Swine flu more often than not presents with nausea and/or vomiting which seasonal flu doesn't so if you've had flu symptoms coupled with GI syptoms swine flu is probable.

The UK has moved on from a prevention phase of the pandemic planning to a treatment phase so schools will not longer be informing parents about swine flu cases. If predictions are correct then the pregnant mums would have to stay away from the school until around Feb/March and I don't know how practical that would be. You also have to remember that a person will be contagious before they show any symptoms of flu.

I think schools only have to inform parents with children with health conditions that make them vulnerable now. I know my friend was told when people in her sons school had it, but Ive never been informed when people have had it in dd1 school.

You can get it anywhere anyway and not everybody who thinks they have had it have. I might have had it, but I didnt realise until later. If I had rang the helpline thingy I would definitely have been told that I did, but I didnt because it felt like a bad cold with a cough and temp rather than flu which Ive had before. Because I thought it was a bad cold I was still out and about and Im sure there are plenty of other people who do the same thing even if it is unintentional.

I wouldn't expect to be told about seasonal flu and I dont expect to be told about swine flu.

Our school is not even informing people with vulnerable children (apart from diabetics) County Council line is to treat it as any other flu.

Our school is not even informing people with vulnerable children (apart from diabetics) County Council line is to treat it as any other flu.

oops!

The daft thing is if you fill in the online flu symptom checker, if you have a temperature and then any one of a host of cold-like symptoms, up pops the auth code to get Tamiflu. My ILS were expecting some sort of exclusion zone around the house and both dh and I to be quarantined at home with them. In reality most of their friends have had or will get it, and it isn't very distinguishable from the usual bugs around at the time of year.

My understanding is that when a school reports an outbreak of influenza-like illness - indicated by reported absences - the local HPU should be organising the swabbing and testing of a few of the children (approx 6-10).

DH and I are on the "official" list as having got it - in that we filled in the on-line questionnaire and were given authorisation codes to collect Tamiflu. The only reason we did that is that DH's place of work is very precious about the whole thing and will not let people come in if they have symptoms, or are caring for someone at home who has.
But, to be honest, it's a complete joke, in that anyone can fill in that form and lie/exaggerate their symptoms. Yes, we're unwell, but have had "real" flu a few times now and this is nowhere near the same severity. DCs have had same bug, but haven't registered them as I'm not keen on them having the anti-virals. So already the stats are inaccurate.
So when people ask us if we've got swine flu, the honest answer is "no idea."

But what would anyone do differently if they'd been told?

IMO anyone who's skipping doesn't have flu and if the method of diagnosis is the check list, everyone's got it.

DS1 had a raised temp & 3 of the other symptoms (only need 2) on
Monday eve, but Tues morning he was right as rain.

If I'd have know that a nasty virus was going round our school recently I would have upped her asthma inhalers in anticipation and she might not have ended up with uncontrolled asthma.

I would imagine that diabetics and others would similarly like to know so that appropriate medication changes or extra monitoring could be implemented.

If we don't have the information then we can't take appropriate action for our children's health.

it seems informally to be doing the rounds at ds's school, through talking to parents. School has not said anything. I have bad asthma so it would be nice if they did. That said I have been ill with something for the last few weeks, coughing like a coughing thing, but no idea if it is SF, no temperature.

But there are many cases of swine flu now, and so many people who have a cold who insist on saying they have fecking swine flu, and the NHS checklist is just a joke, (dd had tonsilitis last week, but had I been in the UK and so inclined she'd have been on the tamiflu quick sharp) there is no way schools can inform everyone.

Anyway, swine flu has, in most cases, less virulent symptoms than a bog standard cold/flu virus so we really need to try and not let hysteria get us.

PS the twins in dd's class have had swine flu twice since Sept.

Can you really get SF mildly? Or is it that people think they have SF when they just have a bad cold? When no one is swabbing it is impossible to tell. Maybe SF is always severe, but just not as common as thought.

Bucharest, have you seen that there have been more pediatric deaths in the States due to swine flu since early September than there are usually in an entire flu season and the epidemic there is still increasing, so whilst hysteria is obviously ridiculous, treating it with respect is not.

My DC, and everyone else's DC, insist that they have swine flu everytime they have a runny nose.

'but no idea if it is SF, no temperature. '

Pofaced, my husband and I both had something like this: very tired, a cough, a bit achy, no temperature. And then the next week or 10 days later my daughter had what the doctor thought was SF. Another doctor told me that SF always equals a temperature but I have heard other people say this isn't the case necessarily. [scratches head]

Thanks abra1d. Impossible to know isn't it.

pofaced, there have been swabbed and proven cases of mild SF....some of expat's family had it far more mildly than others (all swabbed) and people here in SW London last summer ditto.