When H1N1 Hits Home - Day 2

Day 2 is Tuesday, July 30, 2009 — two days into home quarantine and four days since Matthin, my cousin, was symptomatic of the H1N1 virus.

Among other things, I started this day with a call to a friend who was a doctor. We discussed some other thing and when we were about to say goodbye, he asked how I was doing so I gave him the news. He says we shouldn't be worried too much, that it's very similar to the common flu, and that deaths are very rare. Coming from someone you trust, that was quite reassuring.

Matthin is doing well: no fever, no asthma, just a very bad sounding cough. He doesn't look lethargic; he would've been out of his room if his parents weren't scaring him that the police would come get him if forced his way out. I'm glad he's a strong, 40-kilo, almost 5 feet tall, 6-year old boy.

So far no one else inside the house is symptomatic. Matthin's mom looks haggard but appears to be healthy. Matthin's dad, my uncle, has been sleeping in the living room since day 1. The rest of us have been taking extra doses of vitamin C. My uncle came up with his own concoction of boiled ginger, lemon and honey for all of us to drink. Can you blame us? We'd do what we can to stay healthy. By the way, uncle's concoction tastes good to me.

The Cisco personnel arrived late at the afternoon, citing delays due to MOH. They should have been here on day 1. That doesn't sound good because it could mean they have too many cases to take care of. Oh well... As one might expect, the Cisco guys were wearing N95 masks and yellow plastic scrubs. They brought a standard H1N1 kit —as they called it— which included a short literature for Matthin's parents to read, thermometers and most importantly, medicine. There were two sets of Tamiflu — one for Matthin and another for his mother.

They did not install cameras as we were earlier told. They didn't even go beyond the door step. I guess they had no reason to do so. Maybe we really are not suppose to take things too seriously. It's just that in my obsessive-compulsive state of mind, I was expecting a little bit more, like a short lecture on the most critical things we need to monitor Matthin about or a demonstration of how to properly ventilate his room. In place of the cameras, my uncle was told, would be constant monitoring through phone calls. Anyhow, I'm still glad they came and that Matthin could now take proper medication.

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Here's a very good booklet regarding H1N1 from UN.ORG:
Pandemic Flu Influenza A (H1N1) Virus). It's a concise and practical guide on things you need to know about the virus, what you should do to prevent contracting it and what you ought to do in case you or your loved one has already gotten it, including how to properly take care of them. If you're serious about wearing masks, there's a proper way to handle them and there's a short paragraph about that in the booklet.

Even with the constant barrage of information from the news, I was surprised about how much I and my housemates didn't know about H1N1 and viruses in general. For instance, the booklet suggests that "separating of eating utensils for use by a patient with influenza is not necessary". It was something we did as a precaution but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. But then again, if you ask me, I'm really more concerned about other things than the segregation of utensils.

Here's a preview of its Table of Contents so you'd see how practical it is:


That's it. This is the end of day 2.

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