I'm pretty sure last week in a couple of posts I mentioned how much I missed my little ones being home and how I thought I would dapple into my old teaching profession this year. Well, I am no longer missing my little ones during the day and I am getting to practice teaching three (if you include nursery) different levels all at the same time due to our school closing for the week for cases of swine flu!
On Sunday, while enjoying our day in Beijing, I started getting phone calls from all of the kids teachers saying that school would be closed on Monday due to one confirmed case of swine flu and several other cases being tested. At first I was so stunned by the news that I neglected to ask which grades were affected, and when I finally asked and found out it was in the upper elementary, I relaxed a bit. It wasn't until I arrived back in Tianjin that the situation hit a bit closer to home - quite literally. Our dear, dear next door neighbor was enroute to the hospital for a blood test. This is the same neighbor that my children "love on" on a daily basis, including at a cook out on Friday night! In the end, the test did come back positive, but thankfully it was a mild case and the temperature has subsided.
After spending the summer in the US and knowing full well that there were swine flu cases all over the place, my fears about it disappeared. In my mind, it is a flu and it can be quite serious, as can the seasonal flu, but I didn't cancel any trips this summer due to the fear of catching it. Here in China, it is an entirely different story. Immediately after the first case was confirmed our school administrators had to meet with the CDC of Tianjin, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education to decide on an action plan. That plan was to close school until next Tuesday, to help contain this outbreak. As for anyone that displays symptoms, they have to go through quite the ordeal. Many expats use our SOS clinic here because the doctors are from abroad, practice western medicine, and speak English, so the first place we go when we are sick is there. Now, if you present with a fever, they can do a preliminary H1N1 screening there with a throat swab. If the swab comes back positive you are sent (via ambulance) to one of the local hospital's which has been designated as the "fever clinic". Here you are ushered back by nurses and doctors completely covered from head to toe in protective gear to have a blood test and another throat swab. After this is done they do now allow you to go home (last month they would have quarentined you in the hospital for 7 days regardless of the severity). The blood tests take about 1/2 a day to come back and if they come back positive they will prescribe medication.
Now that we are aware that it is in our little community, we will keep a close eye on the kids for symptoms and I'm going to do my best at "mommy" school.
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