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H1N1: What you need to know
Beating the flu at daycare centers
Most people think of them as little germ factories. But so far, child care centers seem to have escaped the brunt of the H1N1 flu outbreak in Minnesota, surprising even the experts.
While schools have been hotbeds of illness, many day-care centers have noticed only a slight uptick in sick kids, according to interviews with child-care providers, nurses and state officials.
The lesson, they say, is that all that attention to toddler hygiene may have really paid off.
"Child-care centers have kind of gotten a bad rap," said Michelle Hahn, a St. Cloud nurse who works with early-childhood programs. The reality, she and others say, is that they tend to be much more vigilant about cleaning and sanitizing than schools -- or workplaces.
No one keeps precise statistics on flu outbreaks at day-care centers. But there's a consensus that they haven't mirrored the level of illness that has swept through schools, where absenteeism rates reached 25 percent or higher. "I personally expected the same thing to happen in day care," said Kay Stennes of the Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency, which works with 200 day-care centers on health issues. "I think we've been pleasantly surprised."
Franci Livingston, an infection-control specialist at the Minnesota Department of Health, agrees. "We've actually gotten surprisingly few reports," said Livingston, who helped draft flu guidelines for day-care centers. "We're finding this interesting as well."
Read more...
Hospitals put limits on visitors to fight flu
Most Twin Cities hospitals are imposing the restrictions in an effort to stop the spread of H1N1.
Flu vaccine clinics this week will target most at risk
Metro counties roll out H1N1 flu-shot clinics for children.
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