KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Suzanne Rybczynki, the Chief Medical Officer at East Tennessee Children's Hospital, said doctors are seeing more illnesses among children. This is because children are back together in school.
She said there is a slow increase in flu cases, some strep and a bacterial illness called "shigellosis." It causes vomiting, diarrhea and fever.
Sarah Ray's house is a full one as she has nine-year-old triplets.
"It means chaos and lots of blessings," Ray said.
When flu season comes, it can mean things can get disrupted. When one child gets sick, all of them usually do.
"It means, 'Buckle your seatbelts,'" Ray said. "You either pray for us all to be sick at the same time and go on lockdown, and get it over with. Or it means, like I believe three years ago, it means it's going to take you out for six weeks in a row."
It's not just the Ray family. Lately, more and more children are getting sick.
"Anytime schools are open, and there are kids that are together, there's a risk for spread of infections," Rybczynki said. "Whether they're respiratory infections or intestinal infections, it can be anything, because kids spread germs."
Doctors say if you or your kids feel sick — stay home. You can be contagious even without obvious symptoms.
"People can have viral illnesses without having a fever," said Sarah Bachor, a physician assistant at Summit Medical Group. "I have plenty of patients with COVID come in with no fever and other viral illnesses, like adenovirus and Rhinovirus, that are ill and are contagious but they don't have a fever."
Both East Tennessee Children's Hospital and Summit Medical Group said parents should teach children how to wash their hands, clean and disinfect surfaces regularly and people should stay home if you feel sick.
Ray's biggest challenge is to control the virus when it's already inside her home. But in the meantime, everyone helps and pitches in with the cleaning.
"Probably isolating or quarantining the ill member of the family so that the others do not catch it," Ray said. "They clean all of the doorknobs, light switches, TV remotes, phones, iPads, all the things with cleaning wipes."