What We’re Seeing the Week of September 28, 2009

Hey everyone. Summer’s over, at least as far as respiratory illnesses. We are seeing a lot of strep throat right now– sore throat, fever, headache, stomach ache/vomiting without runny nose or cough. We are also starting to see H1N1 influenza again– fever, runny nose, cough, body aches, sore throat, headache, and sometimes vomiting. Remember, influenza is different than “stomach flu”, which is really gastroenteritis and is caused by different viruses. We would recommend NOT using any aspirin products at this time (including children’s aspirin and Pepto Bismol, which has a derivative of aspirin) because of the risk of Reye Syndrome in children with influenza A who get aspirin products. Ibuprofen and tylenol do not cause this problem and are safe to use.