Swine Flu - What Parents Need to Know: UK Edition

162 Pages·2009·0.51 MB·English

by  Terence Stephenson

S W I N E
F L U
What Parents Need to Know
For Katie and Satham for making it possible.
For Lucy and Patrick. I think of you every day.
Professor Terence Stephenson
DM, FRCP, FRCPCH
President, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
S W I N E
F L U
What Parents Need to Know
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia
Disclaimer: Whilst every eff ort has been made to ensure all medicine doses quoted
are correct for the UK at the time of going to press, products can change and
countries vary. Always check the label and packaging of any medicine you buy or
are prescribed.
The views expressed in this book are the author’s personal opinions and are
not necessarily the views of other organizations, including the Royal College of
Paediatrics and Child Health.
First published in 2009
by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
116 Pentonville Road
London N1 9JB, UK
and
400 Market Street, Suite 400
Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
www.jkp.com
Copyright © Terence Stephenson 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form
(including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether
or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the writ-
ten permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the
Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saff ron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this
publication should be addressed to the publisher.
Warning: The doing of an unauthorized act in relation to a copyright work may result in
both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 84905 085 2
ISBN pdf eBook 978 0 85700 196 2
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Athenaeum Press, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
Contents
C 1 Introduction 7
HAPTER
C 2 What is swine flu? 10
HAPTER
C 3 What is a pandemic and what can we learn
HAPTER
from previous pandemics? 25
C 4 What are the symptoms of swine flu? 36
HAPTER
C 5 Treatment of swine flu symptoms 49
HAPTER
C 6 Antiviral drugs and the role of antibiotics 68
HAPTER
C 7 Swine flu vaccine 99
HAPTER
C 8 Preventing the spread of swine flu 123
HAPTER
C 9 How dangerous is swine flu? 132
HAPTER
C 10 Frequently asked questions 144
HAPTER
USEFUL RESOURCES 154
INDEX 156
Disclaimer
Whilst every eff ort has been made to ensure all medicine
doses quoted are correct for the UK at the time of going
to press, products can change and countries vary. Always
check the label and packaging of any medicine you buy or
are prescribed.
The views expressed in this book are the author’s
personal opinions and are not necessarily the views of other
organizations, including the Royal College of Paediatrics
and Child Health.
Chapter 1
Introduction
It is estimated that up to 30% of children in the world may
contract swine fl u. Yet a shortage of reliable information about
the virus and a bewildering array of media speculation has
left many parents anxious and confused. This book presents
the key facts about swine fl u and explains in plain and simple
English what every parent needs to know about the virus, how
it may aff ect their children and the measures to combat it.
Some of the most pressing questions include:
• What is swine fl u?
• Just how dangerous is it?
• What are the symptoms?
• What treatments are available?
• Is swine fl u more dangerous in children and, if so,
why?
• What can we learn from past fl u pandemics?
Swine fl u is the fi rst major pandemic to sweep across the
world since 1968. Inevitably, therefore, much of the evidence
I use to draw out answers to these questions is based either on
previous fl u pandemics over the last century or by extrapolation
from seasonal winter fl u. Most of the information we have on
whether antiviral drugs and fl u vaccine benefi t children comes
from experience with ordinary fl u occurring every winter.
This book gives clear guidance on where parents should
go for help and advice. It also includes simple tips to help
7
8 SWINE FLU – WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW
children avoid contracting swine fl u and a list of Frequently
Asked Questions (Chapter 10) with clear and down-to-earth
answers.
If you are confused about swine fl u or worried about how
best to protect your child over the coming months, read on.
For those who want to know the details, I have provided the
research evidence where possible to back up the answers. For
those of you who want to get straight to the answers, I have
provided summary boxes for quick and easy reference.
Sources of information for the public
The views expressed in this book are my personal opinions.
They are not necessarily the views of other organizations,
including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child
Health.
If you have severe symptoms which are not like fl u you
should contact your GP or call:
NHS Direct on 0845 4647 (England)
NHS 24 on 08454 24 24 24 (Scotland)
NHS Direct Wales on 0845 4647
I hope this book brings together the essential information you
need to know as a parent. Much of it is just common sense
and already widely available in many diff erent books, leafl ets
and websites, but it would obviously take many hours to fi nd
it and many more to decipher it. Not an easy thing to do in
the middle of the night when you are worried about your ill
child. I have tried to pull it together for you, to explain the
science behind the swine fl u pandemic and to sort the wheat
from the chaff .
In the text of this book, I have tried to explain the medical
and scientifi c terms and to avoid jargon. This is one problem
with accessing information from the internet, which can often