While the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are concentrating on vaccinating as many people possible for the H1N1 flu virus, a new virus snuck in and is hitting the East Coast with a ferociousness not seen before, hospitalizing hundreds of young children.
How can you protect yourself and your family? Get on our Swine Flu Prevention Kit right away – not a single person using our kit to naturally boost their immune system has reported getting the swine flu.
November 17, 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Runny nose, fever, cough, even pneumonia — the symptoms sound like swine flu but children hospitalized at one U.S. hospital in fact had a “rhinovirus”, better known as a serious form of the common cold virus, doctors said on Tuesday. Hundreds of children treated at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia had a “rhinovirus”, and federal health investigators are trying to find out if it was a new strain, and if this is going on elsewhere in the country.
“What began to happen in early September is we started seeing more children coming to our emergency room with significant respiratory illness,” said Dr. Susan Coffin, medical director of infection control and prevention at the hospital.
Doctors and parents assumed it was the new pandemic H1N1 swine flu, which would be expected to re-emerge as schools began in September. But it was not, Coffin said in a telephone interview. The hospital, unlike most hospitals in the United States, runs a test that can diagnose 10 different respiratory viruses, including influenza but also rhinoviruses, parainfluenza viruses and other germs that make kids sick.
“The data showed us it wasn’t H1N1, but instead was this rhinovirus infection,” Coffin said.
Usually rhinoviruses cause an annoying but benign illness that looks a lot like flu, but with more runny nose and usually less of a fever. This one was causing sudden and severe symptoms and even deadly pneumonia.
“Some of these kids had it really bad” Coffin said — so bad they had to be hospitalized and treated with a nebulizer, which delivers drugs into the lungs to help keep oxygen in the blood.
“We don’t terribly often have large numbers of children test positive for it,” Coffin said.
CDC INVESTIGATING
But she estimated that 500 were hospitalized in September and October, with no deaths that she knows of. Starting in mid-October, H1N1 swine flu started to show up, too.
The U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention is investigating, said CDC spokesman Dave Daigle.
“While rhinovirus outbreaks are common in the fall, the outbreak that occurred this year was unusually large and resulted in a lot of hospital admissions, including many children that required intensive care,” Daigle said.
“We’re still testing the strains from the outbreak, but from what we’ve seen so far, it doesn’t appear that there’s a single predominant strain.”
The CDC says while swine flu is above epidemic levels, only 30 percent of cases of so-called influenza-like illness that are tested actually turn out to be H1N1.
Coffin and CDC officials say it is important for people not to assume if they or their children have flu-like symptoms that it was swine flu and that they do not need to be vaccinated.
H1N1 has infected an estimated 22 million people and killed 3,900 in the United States alone. It continues to spread globally and governments are just at the beginning of efforts to vaccinate people against the virus.
There is no vaccine for rhinovirus and no good treatment. For severely ill patients hospitals can try to keep blood oxygen levels up and keep the patients hydrated, often with intravenous lines if they are coughing or wheezing too hard to eat or drink.
LATEST FLU FACTS:
- Over 4000 Americans have died this year from swine flu, mostly young children and the elderly.
- Hospitals in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Moldova have reported being overwhelmed with patients with H1N1 flu. The ministry in Afghanistan, last week declared a “state of emergency“, shutting down schools, universities and public restrooms for three weeks.
- In Germany, H1N1 cases have doubled in the past seven days.
- In the United Kingdom, over half the population refuse to take a vaccine shot because of fears of its safety. (And rightfully so in my opinion.)
- Less than 40% of US hospital workers agree to take the shot.
Three Urgent To Do’s to Protect Your Family
- As soon as your kids get home from school, have them wash their hands with soap for 20 seconds then rinse with water. Don’t let them get away with just a couple rubs and say “I’m done.” Have them wash their face too. This simple action kills the swine flu germs, preventing them from spreading. Repeat every 30 minutes for maximum protection. (And you do it too!)
- Load them up with lots of Vitamin D-3. Have them take two gelcaps daily – that’s 4,000 iu’s (adults should be taking 10,000 iu’s daily.) Double it if they come down with the flu. Research is showing that high Vitamin D-3 in the blood halts the flu in its tracks. (It is not a coincidence that colds and flu outbreaks occur as we move to shorter, cloudier days where our bodies do not get enough sunshine to produce adequate amounts of Vitamin D!)
- If your kids do come down with a cold or the flu, keep them out of school and at home – don’t let them get worse by going to school.
Special Note: Children can take any and all of our formulas. The serving size on the label is for a person weighing 150 lbs, so adjust accordingly. If they are young and uncomfortable swallowing a capsule, open the capsule and mix in unsweetened applesauce or juice. Gelcaps like Vit D and Shark Liver Oil can be chewed in the mouth and then the gelcap can be spit out – or cut the edge of the gelcap and squeeze the liquid into the applesauce or juice and stir.
If you haven’t already, get our Swine Flu Prevention Kit for your family. It contains the four vital formulas to boost your immune system and ward off the flu virus. We have wholesale priced the kit at $69.99, an extra 20% discount off Preferred Member pricing, to make it affordable for everyone.
Click here to order or learn more about the kit.
Dr. Wayne Garland