Four children die of flu

Four children died in Colorado after catching the flu.
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/02/20/news/local/doc499e4acd6156e957807508.txt
Reducing illnesses in your classroom can save lives.

Flu viruses seldom kill outright but they do damage the immune system and allow for secondary bacterial infections (staph, strep etc) If these bacteria are drug resistant like MRSA, then a patient can become very seriously ill or die. Two years ago in December a healthy soccer playing Ramona middle school boy died of secondary bacterial infection following the flu.

MRSA is simply one variety of a common staph bacteria found in our mouths, lungs and on our skin. The MRSA variety is not killed by most common antibiotics so it has become famous.

People with allergies and asthma are the most likely to get secondary bacterial infections from the flu. Two reasons for this have been found by research. First and older theory is that allergy asthma sufferers have more inflammation than most people. The inflammation traps mucous pockets that can not clear. These pockets provide a perfect environment for the growth of bacteria. Second reason is that some allergy asthma sufferers just cannot clear viruses as well from their lungs. Weeks after healthier subjects show no sign of infection, allergy sufferers still have virus particles in their sputum.

Reason two is the reason to stay five feet away from students who have constant runny noses even though they tell you it is only an allergy. It likely is an allergy but those kids are more likely to maintain viral loads in their mucous.

I have found that the most common spread of airborne disease is caused by mucous drops in the exhaled air of ill people. Sneezes and coughs are bad but so is breathing in the particles of mucous commonly launched from the mouth simply by talking. Distance matters--Two feet or less from ill person talking I got ill almost every time. When I was five or more feet away I did not get sick.