Swine Flu: A Crisis

The Swine Flu: A Crisis

It's all over the news. The Swine Flu has entered the U.S., and everyone is responding quickly. Here is what has happened already:

-- Over 100 schools have closed.

-- President Obama called on all schools with possible swine flu cases to "strongly consider temporarily closing."

-- Congress approved $1.5 billion in emergency funds.

-- Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that everyone involved in schools needs to "pitch in and do our part to prevent the spread of this flu virus."

-- The Department of Education and the CDC have held conferences to give updates and advice for handling the crisis.

-- WHO Director-General Margaret Chan has raised the alert level to phase 4.

-- Shipments of the drug Tamiflu from the federal stockpile, enough to treat 11 million patients, have been distributed to several states.

-- Dr. Jesse Goodman, of the Food and Drug Administration's swine flu work said,"We're working together at 100 miles an hour."

-- Congress has asked Homeland to consider closing the Mexican border.

Here are the numbers: To date, there have been in total 1,085 documented cases worldwide. Swine flu has been blamed for 26 deaths worldwide, 25 in Mexico and one in the U.S., a two year old boy with underlying health issues.

Updates on the Swine Flu epidemic are all over the papers, T.V., Internet, and radio. You can't avoid it.

This is a crisis and deserves a fast response. Sick children, and the death of even one child, is a great loss. But I am a little confussed. I would like to point out some comparisons.

1) Since the outbreak in the U.S., there have been 279 (reported by C.N.N. as of 5/5/2009) cases of swine flu, and one death. Compare that to the fact that 12,600 families are told their child has cancer each year. That is 35 families every single day of the year.

2) The media tells us that the 279 cases and one death from the swine flu is a "crisis" and "epidemic". But do a Google search on childhood cancer, and you will find the media consistently saying childhood cancer, with 40,000 current cases and 2,500 annual deaths, as "very rare".

3) To protect yourself against the swine flu, you should wash hands, not touch your nose, and cover your mouth. You can even wear gloves and a mask. But there is no protection against childhood cancers. In fact, the cause of most childhood cancers is still unknown.

4) The swine flu produces severe flu symptoms. The effects of cancer are beyond description. So just consider this: Cancer is part of the body, so the treatment is a process of poisoning the child to the brink of death, then pulling back hoping they stabilize, then hitting them again. Over and over and over. Maybe a year, maybe 7 years. The resulting organ failures often cause more complications and deaths than the cancer itself. And then you wait and pray that it all worked. "Remission" only means they think they got. "Relapse" means they were wrong.

5) The government has opened up it's stockpile of flu drugs to fight the crisis. But there is no stockpile of cancer drugs. In fact, it has been 30 years since a new pediatric cancer drug has been developed. A 5 year study by the National Institutes of Health concluded that new drugs for pediatric and adolescent cancers are not being developed because the profit margins are too slim. Therefore mega-doses of adult chemotherapy are administered to children, using a medical assembly line system called protocols. The great need for individualized care is ignored because it is not economically sustainable.

6) Congress has approved $1.5 billion in ADDITIONAL funding to fight the swine flu. With 226 infected people, that is $6 million per person. Childhood cancer received a TOTAL of $30 million. That works out to $750 for each child currently fighting cancer.

So does any of this scare you more than the swine flu? It should. The emergency response to the swine flu has been great. But where is the emergency plan for childhood cancer? And where is the media attention? There is none.

Some might say these are not a fair comparisons. Well, in one way they would be correct. The $1.5 billion for the flu has been paid. The $30 million for childhood cancer was approved, but has never funded. Other issues of greater crisis keep taking priority, such as $120 million to distribute free condoms in 3rd world countries (Yes, really. It's in the stimulus package).

We, friends and families of children with Childhood Cancer, shall not give up on informing the rest of the world about Childhood Cancer.

After reading this, it is heartbreaking to know how little is being done in regards to childhood cancer.

The majority of this post is borrowed from a parent of a child with cancer.