"Omg, i'm so scared!" a friend at school texted me yesterday on my phone.

I texted back immediately: "Why? whats happening, r u ok?"

"Ms. jolie might have the swine flu,” she wrote, referring to her French teacher, “and now everyone has to get tested."

And that’s how I first heard about the swine flu outbreak. Over the past few weeks, the pandemic that started in Mexico has spread to the U.S. with reports of 91 people infected across the country, including two confirmed cases in Bay Area. (Test results aren’t back about whether my friend’s French teacher is actually infected.)

I started reading about it and saw how many school age youth are among the confirmed cases. Now I was even more worried. So I called Dr. Lisa Winston, an epidemiologist at San Francisco General Hospital. She’s in charge of controlling the hospital’s infections and outbreaks and she gave me some advice about how to control my own swine-flu-phobia.

Youth Radio: I’ve noticed that a lot of the people infected with the swine flu are young and school age. Why is that?

Dr. Winston: You’re right, it has seemed like a lot of kids have been infected. For example in New York City, a lot of the confirmed cases are in school age kids who went to one school. And it might be because kids are really social people and they have a lot of contact with other people. And they tend to gather in groups in places like school. That’s a good way for influenza to spread.

YR: So it sounds like schools are a dangerous place to be during a flu outbreak.

Dr. Winston: It probably depends on how dangerous the flu is and how it’s affecting people that year. Every year when the flu circulates in the U.S., kids do commonly get infected in their schools. But most of the time, kids don't get that sick from the flu, so even though they might have to be out of school for a couple of days, most of the time school age kids get better from things like the flu very quickly.

What people are trying to figure out now is if the swine flu is different and if it's going to be more dangerous for young people.

YR: What are some precautions teenagers in particular can take to lower their risk of getting infected?

Dr. Winston: Teenagers should do the same thing that adults do to try to prevent getting the flu. I think sometimes for kids and teenagers, it's not on there radar screen. Things like: cleaning your hands using the bottles of alcohol sanitizers that you can get at the drug store works very well; making sure you try to stay a few feet away if somebody who is sick; and then making sure that if you cough or sneeze, that you're covering that. We’re trying to teach people rather coughing into their hands, to do it into your shoulder or your arm, so you're not contaminating your hands all the time.

Here's more from Derek's interview with Dr. Winston:
 

(download mp3)