penelope wrote:Ha! At last you've got a diagnosis. But why was the puumula test NEGATIVE last Friday then?
Is he on any medication? Back to school?
She asked the lab for further cultures to be done, and tests for other (related strands) over the weekend. Got the results back this morning. No medication - just the monitoring, and it's October break this week for us. She says he needs to rest a lot, eat as much and as healthily as possible, absolutely no exercise - all these for at least a week, perhaps more depending on today's kidney function tests.
penelope wrote:Now I'm confused... what's the difference between puumula and myyräkuume: one's vole and t'other's mole? But are the symptoms and the treatment the same? Is there a vaccine?
We have voles and moles at the mökki and the kids are always crawling around inside the barn/garage (eg: pingpong table is inside) anything I can do to prevent them catching something?
I actually know very little about the differences between puumala and myyrakuume. All i know is what she said this morning - that the disease is diagnosed a lot this year because of all the little animals, and that you breathe it in if you are in areas where they live. There's no vaccine and if you get it once, you can't get it again. Some get it badly and some are luckier - perhaps depending on the strength of your immune system. As far as treatment goes, he hasn't had any, but he hasn't had it so badly that the kidneys are malfunctioning to the point where he needs to be hospitalised. It's not contagious from person to person.
It might be good to talk to your school nurse about it, or your family doctor, especially if your kids hang around cottages and nuuksio and the like. My son caught it either at a cottage near Kauniainen or at nuuksio on an overnight excursion with the school. I'll be notifying the school in case they want to inform other parents of the possibilities of catching it on this excursion, as they do the same one each year.
