the reality of avian flu is upon us.
today i went to an agm of an organisation i am chairperson of. just about the only item that needed attention was the creation of an ACTION PLAN FOR AVIAN FLU. we need to determine if anyone will be reimbursed if we temporarily close before or after bird flu hits. i need to write a letter to all members explaining our policy.
i get home and learn that magnificent charles last week was assigned to create a bird flu scenario for the asia pacific region, together with a few people in california.
i see people i know, people i respect, who have hoarded one month’s worth of water and rice and other non perishable food items in their flat, because they believe bird flu will be running rampant through the city and the supermarkets. some parents have been to see their children’s teachers to discuss lesson plans for when the schools are closed.
it doesn’t seem so long ago that we were singing the SARS song, and businesses were closed and people were exodusing the city. except for bird flu has greater potential to mutate, and harm people. and unlike SARS, no where is safe. canada will get hit with the migratory bird pattern, if not from person to person contact from someone off an airplane, apparently.
the news has been pretty quiet with bird flu reports and updates for the past couple of days. but they’re all pointing towards WHEN it hits, not IF. and no where seems to be immune, and no drug seems to be effective from this constantly mutating disease.
we’re playing wait and see, and we don’t know how long we will be waiting for. magnificent and i need to figure out a game plan. from what i have read, once the flu is spread by personal contact, the recommendations will be containing yourself inside until the quarantine has passed.
my children are outside at least twice a day, for a minimum of 90 minutes per session. most assuredly, they would not be impressed if their outside visits were revoked. reasoning with them would not be effective either.
i am scared of this flu for so many reasons. call me flighty, but barracading my children indoors is one of those reasons why.
sars wasn’t so long ago. but that was another disease, another handwash, another drug.
any advice is welcome.
Reader interactions
5 Replies to “deja flu”
I dont know what advice to give you. I dont even know where to begin. Hang in there and come up with a game plan that will work for you guys!
You sound so calm! The possibility of a bird flu epidemic is scary to me. We’ve already begun hoarding food for our one month supply and we live in the midwest USA. I can’t even imagine being in Hong Kong!
locking yourselves indoors to preserve physical health at the expense of mental health doesn’t sound like a good idea. keep your sanity, but follow good hygienic practices, probably the same ones you did when the trio first came home.
simple hand washing (for 15 seconds, get the kids to sing happy birthday while they wash, it takes about 15 seconds to sing) kills most bacteria and destroys most viruses. alcohol hand sanitizer can help when you can’t wash your hands (i.e. on the playground). lysol and bleach (1:10 dilution of household bleach) are very effective at disinfecting surfaces. and contrary to naysayers, the flu vaccine does work against the strains that it was developed for. i don’t know about hk, but i don’t think this year’s flu vaccine in the states has bird flu antigen. maybe next year. crossing your fingers can’t hurt either.
As I’ve said before, I don’t think bird flu is going to happen that soon. My company also has gone nuts with contingency plans, laying in supplies of Tamiflu, etc. I’m sure it’s WHEN, not if, but probably not this year. I may be wrong, that’s just my feeling (and I’ve been to a lot of news conferences on the issue.)
Yes, I’ll definitely avoid bird markets overseas. But we still haven’t seen signs of proven human-to-human transmission. When more than one person in a family’s come down with it, they’ve all usually been in contact with birds.
Handwashing is actually a good suggestion. During the SARS crisis, nobody in Japan got the illness, although a lot of people had been travelling in and out of affected areas. Health officials finally said one reason was all the hand-washing Japanese do. Another reason was supposedly gargling. Though gargling as any kind of preventative seems pretty old-fashioned to me, lots of Japanese do it during flu season as a matter of course. Not sure what everyone uses — some use salt in water.
Obviously, planning ahead is the best way to avoid disasters. But I’m not totally sure a major flu epidemic is as imminent as a lot of news reports make it out to be.
Tess – in preparation for the regular flu season here, I have taught my boys to use antiseptic, waterless gel from a hand pump. If they are coming in from outside, they put their hands out, get a squirt of gel and rub it around in their hands. They enjoy this task and benefit from the cleaning. Its not foolproof, but its a good habit and makes me feel like I’m at least making an effort and doing something about it.