Health & Fitness

The highest temperature I ever saw was in Norfolk, Virginia. “110 degrees fever at home” the triage paperwork said. I looked over the chart to the smiling bouncing toddler trying diligently to dismantle our counter drawer. I asked how the temperature was taken and the grandmother said, “I put my hand on his head and said, ‘Woo, that’s hot! That must be 110!’” She explained smugly, “I had six kids.”

Fever is a common complaint in the ED (Emergency Department… they only call it “ER” on television). Depending on families’ experience, they can either be terrified that their child will have to be poked so much and so many places, or distressed that we’re doing so few tests. Here are some pointers on what to expect if your pediatrician sends you to the emergency department for fever.

The Age of Computers and Television has also become the Age of the Couch Potato. Instead of running outside to play, our kids choose to sit down and text. This decrease in activity level is contributing to the current child obesity epidemic. One third of all children in the United States are overweight or obese and at risk for medical illness because of their weight. Is your child part of that group? If so, insufficient exercise could be partly to blame.

A new study from the British Heart Foundation revealed that the vast majority of parents overestimate the amount of time their kids exercise. According to this study, seven out of ten parents think their kids get enough exercise but only one in ten actually meets current recommendations. Most parents don’t even know what the current recommendations are! The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends one hour of exercise almost every day of the week. Few children get even half that amount.

In case you missed it, Margaret Chan, MD, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), yesterday cautioned the world that the H1N1 pandemic is not over, even though you’re not hearing as much about it in the media or around the watercooler. “It is too premature and too early for us to say we have come to an end of the pandemic influenza worldwide,” Dr. Chan said at a press conference.

With much less attention being paid to H1N1 these days, Thrive asked Claire McCarthy, MD, a pediatrician and the medical director of Children’s Martha Eliot Health Center, if she thought families could stop worrying about the virus—and whether people should still get vaccinated if they haven’t already. Here’s what she had to say:

H1N1 Update from the HealthMap team of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program.

* The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that “Disease activity has peaked and is declining in North America and has either recently peaked or is currently peaking in much of western and northern Europe.” In other good news, WHO also reports no signs of widespread resistance to Tamiflu.
* Nevertheless, the WHO has clearly stated it is too soon to call the pandemic over. The global death toll from H1N1 rose to 8,768 as Cyprus, Albania and the Gaza Strip recorded their 1st H1N1 deaths. The Netherlands saw their first Tamiflu-resistant death.
* In the United States, only half of all states reported widespread flu activity, down from 43 states only two weeks ago. England reported new cases were half of the previous week’s number.

HealthMap continues to track H1N1 and all other infectious diseases at http://www.healthmap.org.