NORFOLK, Va. - If you think the costumes are scary, you don't want to think about the germs in the Halloween candy bowl.
Local doctors say it's always important to keep sick children home from trick-or-treating, but it's especially important this year with flu making a big comeback.
“Not all children have the best hygiene so if they sneeze into their hand and then touch the bowl of candy, then the next person that comes along could touch the same piece of candy," said Dr. Laura Sass, Medical Director for Infection Prevention and Control at Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters (CHKD). "Viruses don’t live forever on surfaces, they don’t stay there for very long but it kind of is the timing of that.”
Dr. Sass tells News 3 that CHKD's clinics are seeing a jump in positive flu cases this month. This year's flu season is forecasted to be especially bad, based on data from Australia, which just had its worst flu season in years.
Sass says even though trick-or-treating happens outside, viruses have a way of spreading.
If a child is sneezing, coughing or running a fever, she suggests keeping them home on Halloween to avoid contact with others.
Another virus she's watching closely is RSV — respiratory syncytial virus — which can feel like a typical cold for many, but she says is dangerous to kids considered most vulnerable.
"In an infant, they would get something called bronchiolitis, which is an inflammation of part of the lungs and it causes them to wheeze and sometimes breathe so fast that they need oxygen and they can’t catch their breath," said Dr. Sass, who's spent much of her time that last couple years discussing the impact of COVID-19 among local children.
According to Sass, coronavirus seems to be improving in Hampton Roads as of late and the headline-grabbing monkeypox isn't much of a concern for kids on Halloween.
She does warn, however, that flu vaccines don't take full effect for a couple weeks after the shot, so those vaccinated in late October likely wouldn't be protected.
