Swine Flu: How Does a Family Contain the H1N1 Virus?
July 26th, 2009
My daughter has swine flu. That we can deal with. But keeping a 16-year-old isolated for seven days and making sure the rest of our family doesn’t get it? Now that’s a challenge. Amid new reports that swine flu could eventually affect 40% of Americans if vaccine campaigns and efforts to slow it fail, families like mine are finding out firsthand what it takes to slow the spread of the highly contagious H1N1 virus. Armed with facemasks, wipes, latex gloves, and prophylactic doses of Tamiflu –even living apart until my daughter recovers—the four of us are holding our breaths that we’ll be contagion-free in time for a big family wedding in a week. With swine flu, it seems, that’s no sure bet.
Like scores of summer programs across the country this year, my daughter’s three-week summer session on Duke University’s East Campus took the extra precaution of closing early because of an outbreak of the virus. When I got the call to come get her (I was visiting my parents’ retirement community, where my frail dad is in skilled care), she was fine, just sad to be saying goodbye to new friends, a stimulating class, and campus rituals she’d been anticipating. Scrambling to make arrangements for my 11-year-old (and with my husband back in New Jersey working), I made the 4-hour drive to Durham the next day. Midway through the trip she called—she was achy, should she go to the office, where they would quarantine her? Yes, get checked out, I told her. She called back in tears. “My temperature is 99.3.”
By the time I arrived an hour later, my daughter’s temperature had climbed a degree. When she stepped out of the quarantine room, her skin clearly clammy, her eyes sad above her facemask, I stopped, at a loss. Do I hug her and hold her close, like I always do when she needs comforting, or do I keep my distance and protect myself, the only caregiver for both my kids on this trip? Hours later, I still regretted not rushing up to hug her. I kept my distance—though not for long. Wearing a mask offered by the office, I finally held her. As we made our way to the van, she skirted the clumps of students hugging goodbye, saying her farewells through the mask.
Hundreds of miles from our pediatrician, and fearing the risks to my elderly parents, I arranged an appointment for her at Duke’s student health center. An hour later, we walked out with the verdict that she had “all the classic signs of swine flu,” a prescription for Tamiflu, a promise of test results, and orders to keep her in isolation for seven days, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. In close quarters in the minivan on the way back, she went through a box of tissues while I ran through all the possible permutations of isolation. Throwing caution to the wind, I suppose, I drove without the facemask—how could we sing the lyrics of Hair together through the masks? But she was too sick to sing, and preferred softer music. And I forgot about the mask.
Trying to minimize the chance that anyone else will get sick, we’ve decided not to return home right away (a 12-hour road trip can’t be good for recovery, much less for reducing exposure to the virus; do you expose travelers at a rest stop to a masked kid with swine flu? In fact, the CDC recommends patients avoid travel.). We’re fortunate: We have our own quarantine house, the original homestead on my brother’s Blue Ridge acreage where we stay when we visit. My brother has offered to keep my son at his house while we remain isolated. We disinfect door handles, phones, and other surfaces; I wear a mask when I briefly see my brother or his wife, and am taking Tamiflu. As long as I don’t develop symptoms, it should be fine for me to be with the rest of my family, but we remain afraid I could transmit the virus to others. With frail, elderly parents, we feel we can’t be too cautious, so for now I’m remaining isolated with my daughter. But are we going too far? As a mother, should I be caring solely for the sick child while letting other family members care for the healthy one?
The highly contagious nature of the H1N1 virus makes it a challenge our family has never faced. Already I’ve violated one of the CDC’s recommendations for caretakers: “Avoid close contact (less than about 6 feet away) with the sick person as much as possible.” Maybe I should have worn that mask in the minivan after all—though time will soon tell. Readers, any suggestions?
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