Mumbai, August 14: Six-year-old Vivek Menon is scared of venturing outside. “I don’t have a mask and can get swine flu,” says the kid. Greatly disturbed by the panic around him, he doesn’t go near family members returning home from work, until they have had a bath. He keeps count of the death toll, and is terrified of dying of the flu.
The swine flu pandemicFor seven-year-old Krishna Shah, swine flu is the deadly virus that forced his principal to shut the school. It is going to kill all school kids eventually, he thinks. “I have tried telling him that the flu is just like a common cold, but he refuses to believe me,” says his mother, Minal Shah.
Watching the drama unfold when Reeda Shaikh, 14, allegedly the first victim of swine flu, or four-year-old Balakrishnan died of the deadly virus, could have affected the children, say counsellors. “As the victims were of their age group, children relate to them easily, and are afraid that the virus might kill them too,” says counsellor Rajan Bhonsale.
Counsellors advise that parents need to be alert and check for panic signs in their kids — behaving strangely, keeping aloof, feeling low or disturbed or asking too many questions — and need to take immediate corrective action. “In case of very young kids, parents need to reassure them, as they have faith in their parents. The older kids can be spoken to,” says Bhonsale. “But avoid a face-to-face talk. You can sit next to your kid, hold him or hug him when you discuss the topic. The children need to be assured that you are there for them.”
Counsellors also advise parents to stop getting scared and staying glued to television sets, listening to news about the disease. “Change channels even if you subconsciously start watching a news channel. The rising death toll will only frighten the kids,” says Dr Harish Shetty, another city-based counsellor.
Dr Bhonsale says, “Don’t isolate and restrict your children to the house. Let them play in public gardens and have fun just like the way they had it before people started dying of the flu. Just tell them that the flu will come and go.”
–Agencies