Protecting kids from contagious illnesses

WITH dengue cases totaling over 100,000—a 32-percent increase than last year’s figure for the same period—the public now has a glimpse at how dangerous and costly it will be if we let similarly contagious diseases spread through the community.

And just like dengue, the children will be most vulnerable once cases of seasonal flu suddenly intensify. “Each year seasonal flu places a large burden on the health and well-being of children and their families. Flu is more dangerous to children,” said Dr. Sally Gatchalian, a pediatrician and specialist in infectious diseases.

Flu is a highly contagious disease, easily spread via droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk. Less often, a person might also get infected by touching a surface or object that has flu virus and then touching his/her own mouth or nose. Children are more vulnerable because they spend a lot of their time in school, child care facility or play area where a sick individual may be lurking.

Gatchalian lamented on how people regard seasonal flu as a mild illness, even comparing it to a common cold. This is why every year many children are hospitalized while some even die from flu complications.

“If not treated promptly, the most alarming complications of flu may include bacterial pneumonia, dehydration and worsening of chronic medical conditions, such as if the sick child already suffers from a congestive heart failure ( a condition in which the heart’s function as a pump is inadequate to meet the body’s needs) or asthma,” explained Gatchalian.

Vulnerable

Another group at risk of developing complications include children ages between 6 months and 18 years old and who suffer from asthma or chronic lung diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or cystic fibrosis (condition wherein lungs and digestive system become clogged with thick sticky mucus).

Most healthy people carry the bacteria that cause pneumonia in their noses or throat. But when an infection like the flu weakens the body’s immune system, these bacteria could end up in the lungs causing inflammation of the air sacs that afterward, cause breathlessness, chest pain that worsens when coughing or breathing, and the inability to take in enough oxygen.

This is dangerous for children with heart disease (those with congenital heart disease, congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease); blood disorders (such as sickle cell disease); kidney disorders; liver disorders; or with an already weakened im- mune system due to disease or medication (such as those with HIV or AIDS, cancer, or those on chronic steroids).

One approach to counter the spread of flu, according to the Department of Health, is the crafting of an effective education, information and communication campaign.

Precautionary measures

Simple precautionary measures such as isolating sick individuals and adopting good hygiene practices (frequent hand washing, disinfecting frequently touched surfaces) are the best ways to prevent the spread of flu. Moreover, the importance of taking the annual flu vaccination must be stressed especially for children with higher risk of acquiring serious flu complications.

Scientists create the flu vaccine annually based on the strains of flu virus they predict will circulate for the next season. For years, the vaccine available for seasonal flu vaccine has been trivalent, which contains antigens representing three strains of flu virus (representing two influenza A strains and one influenza B strain).

Recently, however, the quadrivalent flu vaccine was added to the available choices considering that 50 percent of the time in the past decade, the trivalent vaccine B strain did not match the circulating B strain. The quadrivalent flu vaccine hopes to solve this as it contains the same strains as the trivalent vaccines plus a second influenza B strain.