the epicenter

melbourne has now become the epicenter for swine flu in australia. we are now the equivalent to mexico, panama and japan. children who visit victoria are now being told they have to stay home from school for 7 days upon returning to their home state. in victoria they aren't even going to test everyone exhibiting syptoms anymore but just give them all antiviral drugs. only high risk patients and those with more severe syptoms will be tested to confirm whether or not its swine flu. surprisingly we've only had 1 case at work (and it was a child who hadn't been at the center for a week at the time of her diagnosis). we have taken lots of precautions like getting rid of all the hand towels for children and staff (its sad the amount of paper towel we now go thru each day), no more shared fruit and veggie platters and we are making sure parents are vigilant in keeping unwell children home (even if it isn't swine flu but there are so many other illnesses going around too). we sent a child home today with flu syptoms (headache, fever and no appitite). hopefully just a seasonal flu bug or something. fortunately swine flu hasn't been any worse for most people here than just a regular seasonal flu so it's not a huge deal-- just a few days feeling sick.