Your Swine Flu To-Do (and Don’t Do) List

Swine flu vaccines are rolling out this month—finally. Health-care workers in Indiana and Tennessee were the first to get the nose-spray version, while New Yorkers clamoring for the H1N1 vaccine finally had their chance too.

However, the onslaught of information about H1N1—be it playground rumors, employer signs telling you to cover your cough, memos from your kids’ school, or scary-sounding news reports—is making it pretty hard to figure out what you should be doing right now.

Although some people have already been vaccinated, it could be weeks—depending on your age and risk factors—before you even get a chance at the shot (or spray). So now what?

Sometimes it feels like you have two choices:

1. Wring your hands endlessly about something over which you have no control.
2. Tune out the static and pretend this is all just a horrible dream. (Call it the ignore-the-whole-sorry-mess-until-my-neighbor-is-sick approach.)

Well, guess what? There are a few things you should—and should not—be doing at the moment. Here’s your guide.

Look up local flu outbreaks

If you’re getting most of your news from the Internet—and about 40% of people say they do—you may not be up on H1N1 activity in your community. Take the time to check local flu activity on the online version of your local newspaper (remember those?) or health department. Try FluTrends, which is produced by Rhiza Labs, and includes past cases and current activity, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) weekly flu update.

If your city or state is a bit of a hot spot, you may need to focus on some of these to-do points sooner than others. The good news is that some of the hardest hit areas in spring—like New York—don’t seem to have that many H1N1 cases at the moment. (Experts estimate that up to 1 million New Yorkers may have had H1N1 in the spring, which would protect against subsequent infections.)

Don’t panic

For most people, an H1N1 infection is generally mild and can be cured with time, bed rest, and fluids. The virus is serious, though—particularly for those in high-risk groups. So far this year, 28 pregnant women have died of H1N1, as have 76 children. “At least two-thirds of [the children] had underlying conditions, which we recognize as putting them at increased risk for complications,” says Nathan Litman, MD, the chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, in New York City. High-risk people, whether adults or children, tend to have chronic heart or lung conditions (including asthma), weakened immune systems due to disease or chemotherapy treatment, or diabetes.

That said, H1N1 will feel like seasonal flu for most people. “I’d say at the present time the swine flu looks no more serious than the routine seasonal influenza,” says Dr. Litman.

Stay home

Are you sick right now? Say, with flu-like symptoms such as fever, aches, stuffy nose, and chills? Sorry, but it’s quite possible you already have swine flu. Experts say that flu activity is higher-than-normal for this time of year and almost all of it is due to H1N1. If you (or your child) are not in a high-risk group, it’s best to stay put.

If a child is 2 or older "and has no risk factors for complications and has fever, runny nose, or cough, the best thing to do is to stay home,” says Dr. Litman. “Plenty of fluids, Tylenol, Motrin, or Advil for fever, and it should run its course on its own.”

If a child has difficulty breathing, is unable to take fluids, or starts to be less responsive, or after appearing to recover from the influenza develops a fever and starts coughing again, then see a doctor.

If you are pregnant and have flu symptoms, it might be best to call your doctor before going in to see him or her, says Dr. Litman.

“They may want to set up a separate location to be seen or separate times to see sick patients,” he says. “You don’t want the pregnant woman with influenza who is coughing and sneezing to go into the room with pregnant women who are well and just there to get routine prenatal care.”

Understand the risks

While the symptoms of H1N1 may be no different from seasonal flu, there are some key differences. H1NI may be easier to catch than regular flu, and younger people may be more likely to come down with it than older people. “From what I’ve seen, I actually believe it to be more contagious,” says Dr. Litman. Often with the seasonal flu that’s circulating, a percentage of the population has some immunity to it. With H1N1, it looks like most people—other than the elderly—have no immunity to it, and that may be why it appears more contagious, he says.

People who are older than 60 may have been exposed to a swine-flu-like virus in the distant past, which is giving them an edge with this pandemic. That’s not to say they can’t get sick, but “many of them appear to have immunity from a prior infection with a similar virus or cross reactions with a similar virus that help protect them against the swine flu,” says Dr. Litman.

Get a seasonal flu shot

The regular seasonal flu shots are available now, and it makes sense to “get the jab” (as the Brits say). While most flu cases happening right now are caused by H1N1, “in two months or three months it may be the regular seasonal flu and we should be prepared for that,” says Dr. Litman. “Since that vaccine is currently available, I recommend that everyone considered a risk group receive the seasonal flu vaccine.” Seasonal flu can be just as dangerous as H1N1; about 36,000 people die, including about 80 children, of seasonal flu every year.