Treatment and protection questions: H1N1, children focus of FAQs

Other questions

If one of my children gets the flu, how can I protect my other child?

That is a difficult one to do. One of the best ways to try to reduce transmission is to treat the child who is infected. One can start antiviral therapy not only for the child to feel better, but also to reduce the amount of virus shedding and the secretions so that that child does not shed or spread it to others. Another thing that can be done, but it's very difficult, is to try to maintain a mask within the home setting or try to reduce contact with others. That is very difficult in a home setting.

If there is an individual who is very sick, then prophylaxis of the family members may be very well to the advantage of the family as a unit. On the other hand, if everybody is healthy, maybe waiting for the other member to get a little sick and then start antiviral therapy. So, in essence, they're developing good immune response and you're stopping the disease process early.

Do children's vitamins help improve the immune system? If so, does that mean they won't get the flu symptoms as severe as those who don't take vitamins or will they recover faster, or both?

Individuals, including children, who are healthy, in other words they have good nutrition, are going to be able to handle infection better. Individuals who have poor nutrition, they are going to be more susceptible to more severe infection or complications from influenza. As with regards to one particular vitamin over the other, I would say it's ok to take daily vitamins, but we do not have good data to strongly support that high doses let's say of vitamin C or vitamin E or vitamin D will prevent influenza infection.

What kinds of ingredients do over-the-counter flu and cold medicines contain? If the medicine has acetaminophen or Tylenol, should you give your child Tylenol as well?

It is important that if you're going to use over-the-counter medications to treat symptoms that you know well what those over-the-counter medications contain. Generally, many pediatricians would advise for children under 2 years of age, that many of these over-the-counter preparations not be used. Because, in general, they really do not change the course of the illness. So again, to reiterate, it is important as a consumer if you're going to use over the counter products for children that you know well what they contain so that if they contain aspirin products you don't use them.

You need to know if the over-the-counter medication you gave your child has acetaminophen if you're going to try to complement it with another fever reducing medication.

When is Tamiflu recommended?

The Centers for Disease Control says that treatment should be given to those who have at risk medical conditions, to young children who have a higher risk for hospitalization, and to severe disease children or adults who are likely to develop severe disease or who have severe disease at presentation. There are other individuals, including myself, who believe that if you're sick enough to be seen by your physician and you are infected with swine flu or thought strongly to have swine flu, we do have medications that could be used effectively for treatment. And Tamiflu as well as Relenza, depending on the age of the child, are effective antivirals that are currently approved and licensed for the treatment of influenza.

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