You could have gotten the same results anecdotally from any teacher.

Over four winters, Harvard researchers matched hacking adults' visits to Boston-area emergency rooms with Census data for 55 zip codes. Flu-like symptoms struck first and worst in the zip codes that were home to the most kids.

Every 1 percent increase in the child population brought a 4 percent increase in adult ER visits, researchers reported this summer in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

"The impact of kids and the flu is clear," says study co-author John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Children's Hospital Boston. "It doesn't mean the areas without kids are protected from flu. It just means they experience flu later and at lower rates."

Any parent can attest that youngsters are germ factories. It takes years of nagging before they cover coughs and sneezes. Little ones tend to pick their noses. Even teenagers aren't great hand-washers. Crowded schools, preschools and day-care centers act as incubators.

It's why we have little mini-epidemics at school every year -- and why teachers are eitehr decimated by something new or are gloriously immune after having been exposed to so much crap over the years. We all remember that first year of teaching when we got every byug that walked into our classroom.

And I suspect it is also not just that kids are less sanitary than adults, but also that adults let them inside our personal space more readily than other adults. Think about it -- we'll gladly pass around a baby or hug a sniffly toddler.

Posted by: Greg at 10:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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