Swine Flu: A Mother's Perspective

Swine flu continues its spread, now having been confirmed in 331 cases across 11 countries.

It has been a rough week for many of us, with escalating fears and losing hope about stopping the impending pandemic.

Today, I'm checking Dr. Koo, infectious diseases expert, at the door and replacing her with "Mommy".

My role as your Guide to Infectious Diseases is to use my training and expertise to provide you with the facts (when the media gives you conflicting information), to educate (by deciphering through scientific research papers, press transcripts, CDC and WHO documents, by filtering through the massive amounts of information, and by translating the "medical-ese" into English), to answer your questions, and to give you my professional opinion on the situation. My hope is that you will be able to use this information to remain rational and to settle your nerves.

But even with all the data and statistics pointing to a mild disease that is beginning to subside, I can appreciate that it is really hard to be rational, when lives are at stake and you are literally scared for your lives.

Like many of you, I am a parent whose first priority is to protect her children. And, admittedly, I have had the occasional bout of panic when my child coughs or sneezes. I have called our pediatrician several times in the past week. I have been plagued by memories of my children's past illnesses, when I thought I would just wait out a fever.

While my alter-ego, infectious disease scientist Dr. Koo, can dismiss the public's overreaction to the situation and criticize the media for feeding into their fears, I am also grateful to see the excellent reminders of frequent hand-washing and other good hygiene practices. I am grateful for technical developments, such as the internet, that have made it possible for people to be aware of what is happening in real-time. I am grateful for the reminder about how frail our lives really are and to make every moment count. And I am grateful to see a nation--no, make that world--that is coming together to try to save humanity as we know it.

But as "Mommy", I cannot help but think of how to best protect my children.

I've seen on local news reports that school-age children are scared to tears. Teenagers are terrified of dying. For our children, how do you explain away their fears? How can you tell them that the statistics show this, and the data show that? What our children see is their parents scrubbing their hands with fear in their eyes. They see people donning face masks and acting irrational. They see their moms and dads rushing to medical clinics at the first instance of a runny nose or cough.

Parents, I urge you to stay calm, not for yourselves, but for the sake of your children. We still don't know everything about the current outbreak, nor do we know what the outcome will be. Understandably, our feelings of helplessness are driving our fears, but let us please remind ourselves that our worry is not helping our children.

Stay safe, and stay sane.

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