300 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 355-6000
For Patients & Families:
Flu Information Center (Seasonal & H1N1)
A site for parents to get the latest information on Flu (Seasonal and H1N1) and your children.
H1N1 flu, previously known as "swine flu," is a new strain of flu virus. H1N1 flu is spread the same way, causes the same symptoms and is treated the same way as seasonal flu. The main difference between seasonal flu and H1N1 flu is that most people do not have immunity or protection against H1N1 since this is a new strain of flu. Since few people have protection against H1N1 flu, more people could become sick with this type of flu. Please check the links below to learn more about H1N1.
Click here to view a new online tool developed by the Children's HealthMap team, which maps the locations of Massachusetts clinics offering seasonal/H1N1 flu vaccines.
With the very vulnerable patient population at Children's Hospital Boston, it is particularly important that anyone who is experiencing flu-like symptoms not visit Children's. Children and adolescents are particularly susceptible to H1N1, and those who attend daycare or school can often carry the virus home, so visits from siblings of hospitalized are a big concern this year.
If your child or you have a fever or respiratory symptoms (cough, sore throat, or runny nose/nasal congestion), please contact your primary care provider for guidance before coming to the hospital to visit your child or for an outpatient appointment.
Staff from Children's Infection Control Program are in close contact with the Boston Public Health Commission, Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control about the most effective ways to protect our patients and staff from H1N1. The MDPH and CDC websites have a lot of useful information and recommendations regarding swine flu.
Please visit this webpage regularly, as well as the links below, to stay informed on the latest news on the H1N1 virus. Please see the Massachusetts Department of Public Health website for the most updated information of confirmed cases in Massachusetts.
Due to the increasing amount of flu (H1N1 influenza) circulating in Massachusetts, we are placing strict limitations on our patient visitor policy.
As of November 3:
Non-family members and patients' siblings under 18 will not be allowed to visit inpatients. Visits to inpatient areas will be restricted to parents, guardians, grandparents and siblings over 18.
Parents and guardians are strongly discouraged from bringing patients' siblings under 18 to outpatient appointments. Non-family members may no longer accompany families to these appointments unless they are caretakers.
For more information about these changes, click here.
Children's Hospital Boston held a clinic in the Primary Care Center (CHPCC) on Nov. 11 where high-risk and ambulatory patients seen at Children's received injectable doses of the H1N1 vaccine.
Children's Martha Eliot Health Center's H1N1 vaccination clinic among first in Boston
Martha Eliot Health Center conducted one of the first H1N1 vaccination clinics for the City of Boston.
Stay ahead of H1N1 news by subscribing to our blog, Thrive!
Want to know what illnesses are flourishing near you and your family? Track the H1N1 virus and other illnessess via Children's "Outbreak Near Me" iPhone application.
H1N1 flu, previously known as "swine flu," is a new strain of flu virus. H1N1 flu is spread the same way, causes the same symptoms and is treated the same way as seasonal flu. The main difference between seasonal flu and H1N1 flu is that most people do not have immunity or protection against H1N1 since this is a new strain of flu. Since few people have protection against H1N1 flu, more people could become sick with this type of flu. Please check the links below to learn more about H1N1.
