Tragically swine flu seems to be the flavour of the month in India once again. Or should I say fragrance of the month since the virus is inhaled, not ingested? The Indian news channels on television are screaming out the death statistics and the Indian newspaper we buy here repeats more of the same. Multinationals selling hand wash soap are making the most of the opportunity by taking out half page advertisements on the front pages of leading Indian dailies. My phone is continuously beeping as one swine flu update or the other is delivered across many What's Aap and Viber groups. People are advising each other to wash their hands very frequently, avoid crowded areas, use hand sanitizer, use washable cloth masks, sniff ground cardamom and camphor (really?), use homoeopathic medicines and hang Neem leaves over their doors and windows in a bid to purify the air! Of course all the above advice has to be taken along with a pinch and whiff of the ever evolving swine flu vaccine! This time the states in Northern India seem to be the worst affected unlike those dark days of 2009 and 2010 when my home state Maharashtra, bore the major brunt of the epidemic, recording the highest number of deaths in India.
We had experienced all this first hand, half a decade ago when, for some inexplicable reason, the Girls' Section of our children's school became the epicentre of the virus with the maximum number of cases detected. All schools and coaching classes in my hometown were shut for many days at the height of the epidemic but the positive cases in my daughter's class continued unabated even when the situation was almost back to normal elsewhere. So her division was shut down again and we came to a point when every single girl who sat around my daughter's desk came down with swine flu, barring her and her immediate partner. I was reduced to a point where I was taking her temperature every couple of hours. Since the first devastating death due to swine flu in our city had been a young teenage girl, just a couple of years older than my then eleven year old, the schools had warned parents to be extra cautious.
We came out of it unscathed in 2009 by the grace of God and fantastic immunity! 2010 rolled around and June heralded the advent of our monsoons. With it there was a rise in swine flu cases again in our much beleaguered city and all schools were on stand by in the eventuality of another massive outbreak. We were told to rush our kids to the nearest paediatrician at the mere hint of a cold or a fever. All in all, it wasn't a very happy beginning to a fresh school year.
The day began as a normal one. The kids came back from school, ate, did their homework and rushed for their Tae Kwon Do class. Bath, dinner, more homework and bed and then a soft voice asking me to wake up. The time was 4:00 am. It was my daughter who came into our room complaining of a throat ache and apologizing for waking me up! This is a really funny habit she has had even as a tiny tot when she used to apologize to me on the rare occasions that she threw up! I had to always reassure her that it wasn't her fault if she was unwell! She had some fever too so I gave the necessary medicine and put her back to bed.
That morning she just had mild fever with a slightly achy throat so we roped in my mother to keep her company while my husband and I rushed to keep our appointment with our chartered accountant for the much deplored and complicated task of filing our tax returns. It was there that we got a frightening phone call. Her fever just kept rising and rising and just refused to come down despite acetaminophen and cold sponging. It touched 104 degrees against the normal of 98.6, within a very short span of time. So we rushed back home and took her to our standby paediatrician close to our house ( with the consent of our dearest paediatrician described in my blog 'A Doctor Called Mami'). Having a paediatrician very close to the house had become a necessity since the swine flu out break of the previous year.
My first question to the young lady doctor was 'Do you think it is swine flu?' She replied that none of the symptoms were present - there was cold, no cough and the throat seemed fine so it certainly wasn't swine flu! Even the fever seemed to be under control. So we would just wait and watch. Over the next couple of days the fever continued on and off and the doctor was puzzled and ordered extensive blood tests, urine tests and even an ultrasound! Everything came back as normal! My regular question: 'Is it swine flu?' I always got a negative answer just like all those tests she underwent!
Finally, almost a week later, my daughter remained fever free for forty eight hours and the doctor said she could go back to school the next day. My husband who was then working in another city and had taken leave to stay on in Pune till she recovered, bought his bus ticket to report back to work. I dropped him off at the spot close to our house on the highway from where the inter state bus would pick him up in less than fifteen minutes. As a final precaution, I checked her fever as soon as I got back. It read 99 degrees! I called up the young paediatrician without wasting another minute and she told me we needed to get a swine flu test done first thing the next morning!
I then called up my husband, sure that he must have left in the interim. Now this is the strangest part of the whole saga. My husband told me the bus had come and left without him! It just did not stop at it's regular halting place despite my husband holding a confirmed ticket! It wasn't as if it was the first time he was being picked up from there! I strongly believe God wanted him to remain in the city that night so he would be with us during the most worrisome time of our lives that was to start that night. And so the bus driver never saw him that night...God works in strange but perfect ways...
By next evening the swine flu test came back positive and though my daughter never had another fever spike nor any symptoms ever, both she and my son (as a precaution) had to take Tamiflu, the drug to combat swine flu. I had to inform the school that we had one positive case and we had to report it to the municipal cooperation authorities of our city as well.
A week of wait and watch later, the whole saga was over. No other family member got infected and it was as if we had all become immune. It must have been the strangest and most symptom free and least contagious case of swine flu our city had ever seen! Having been there and done that, I would suggest that all those living in India should use the most practical parts of all the advice that is being doled out through our phones. Better to be safe than sorry! Else all those glorious free words of wisdom would be like casting pearls before swine, right?
Never been gladder to see the last of any drug than this one!
We had experienced all this first hand, half a decade ago when, for some inexplicable reason, the Girls' Section of our children's school became the epicentre of the virus with the maximum number of cases detected. All schools and coaching classes in my hometown were shut for many days at the height of the epidemic but the positive cases in my daughter's class continued unabated even when the situation was almost back to normal elsewhere. So her division was shut down again and we came to a point when every single girl who sat around my daughter's desk came down with swine flu, barring her and her immediate partner. I was reduced to a point where I was taking her temperature every couple of hours. Since the first devastating death due to swine flu in our city had been a young teenage girl, just a couple of years older than my then eleven year old, the schools had warned parents to be extra cautious.
We came out of it unscathed in 2009 by the grace of God and fantastic immunity! 2010 rolled around and June heralded the advent of our monsoons. With it there was a rise in swine flu cases again in our much beleaguered city and all schools were on stand by in the eventuality of another massive outbreak. We were told to rush our kids to the nearest paediatrician at the mere hint of a cold or a fever. All in all, it wasn't a very happy beginning to a fresh school year.
The day began as a normal one. The kids came back from school, ate, did their homework and rushed for their Tae Kwon Do class. Bath, dinner, more homework and bed and then a soft voice asking me to wake up. The time was 4:00 am. It was my daughter who came into our room complaining of a throat ache and apologizing for waking me up! This is a really funny habit she has had even as a tiny tot when she used to apologize to me on the rare occasions that she threw up! I had to always reassure her that it wasn't her fault if she was unwell! She had some fever too so I gave the necessary medicine and put her back to bed.
That morning she just had mild fever with a slightly achy throat so we roped in my mother to keep her company while my husband and I rushed to keep our appointment with our chartered accountant for the much deplored and complicated task of filing our tax returns. It was there that we got a frightening phone call. Her fever just kept rising and rising and just refused to come down despite acetaminophen and cold sponging. It touched 104 degrees against the normal of 98.6, within a very short span of time. So we rushed back home and took her to our standby paediatrician close to our house ( with the consent of our dearest paediatrician described in my blog 'A Doctor Called Mami'). Having a paediatrician very close to the house had become a necessity since the swine flu out break of the previous year.
My first question to the young lady doctor was 'Do you think it is swine flu?' She replied that none of the symptoms were present - there was cold, no cough and the throat seemed fine so it certainly wasn't swine flu! Even the fever seemed to be under control. So we would just wait and watch. Over the next couple of days the fever continued on and off and the doctor was puzzled and ordered extensive blood tests, urine tests and even an ultrasound! Everything came back as normal! My regular question: 'Is it swine flu?' I always got a negative answer just like all those tests she underwent!
Finally, almost a week later, my daughter remained fever free for forty eight hours and the doctor said she could go back to school the next day. My husband who was then working in another city and had taken leave to stay on in Pune till she recovered, bought his bus ticket to report back to work. I dropped him off at the spot close to our house on the highway from where the inter state bus would pick him up in less than fifteen minutes. As a final precaution, I checked her fever as soon as I got back. It read 99 degrees! I called up the young paediatrician without wasting another minute and she told me we needed to get a swine flu test done first thing the next morning!
I then called up my husband, sure that he must have left in the interim. Now this is the strangest part of the whole saga. My husband told me the bus had come and left without him! It just did not stop at it's regular halting place despite my husband holding a confirmed ticket! It wasn't as if it was the first time he was being picked up from there! I strongly believe God wanted him to remain in the city that night so he would be with us during the most worrisome time of our lives that was to start that night. And so the bus driver never saw him that night...God works in strange but perfect ways...
By next evening the swine flu test came back positive and though my daughter never had another fever spike nor any symptoms ever, both she and my son (as a precaution) had to take Tamiflu, the drug to combat swine flu. I had to inform the school that we had one positive case and we had to report it to the municipal cooperation authorities of our city as well.
A week of wait and watch later, the whole saga was over. No other family member got infected and it was as if we had all become immune. It must have been the strangest and most symptom free and least contagious case of swine flu our city had ever seen! Having been there and done that, I would suggest that all those living in India should use the most practical parts of all the advice that is being doled out through our phones. Better to be safe than sorry! Else all those glorious free words of wisdom would be like casting pearls before swine, right?
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