Weekly update February 18th

I hope everyone had a nice 3 day weekend.
 As expected, the pile of charts waiting for us this morning was enormous, so thanks for your patience if awaiting a call.

There isn't one overwhelming illness making headlines,  I am seeing a little bit of everything.
If I had to crown a winner it would be the cough/cold./ fever  kids. The cough has been lingering for weeks and weeks.
We are also seeing quite a bit of conjunctivitis.
I have reports of some hand/ foot/mouth exposures and slap cheek exposures at day cares, but I haven't seen too many of those in the office.
I have a handful of kids with some mild vomiting and diarrhea.
We have seen some strep throat. About half of the tests are running positive, and half of the sore throats are just viral.
We have had in increase in RSV as well, which is unfortunate, I was hoping that that would fade away.
http://www.nursejudynvp.blogspot.com/2013/11/rsv.html

We are still seeing some flu circulating.

That case of Measles in the Bay Area is certainly frightening.
We usually vaccinate patients when they turn 15 months, but kids can get the shot as early as 12 months.
If more cases of Measles turn up and your child is over a year and un vaccinated, feel free to check in with us about coming in for the MMR protection before the 15 month check up.
Measles is a very serious illness. It would show up with a dramatic rash, fever, red eyes and a child who looks pretty sick.
Thanks to years of vaccination, we rarely see the actual disease anymore.

Also, Reminder that if you have a new insurance plan for 2014, PLEASE CALL YOUR PLAN to make sure that we are on it. For instance, There are a number of new Blue Shield PPO plans that we are NOT part of.
 We would love to be able to check for you, but honestly each call can be an aggravatingly long wait on hold and we simply don't have the time to do this. We also often don't have your current info if you have recently changed....so alas this is ultimately something that you will need to deal with.

Stay well
~Nurse Judy