Elmo Flu Videos Help Kids To Stay Healthy

Uncle Sam may be looking for a few god men or woman, but it is Elmo that the US government called upon to help get the word about staying healthy and avoiding the swine flu this year. Elmo's swine flu videos are targeted to preschool children. Along with pregnant women and the elderly, children are considered to be some of the most at risk against the H1N1 flu.

In the videos the kid, and that includes kids of all ages, favorite red furry Sesame Street character teaches kid how the steps they can do to keep from catching the flu. These are simple steps that everyone should be doing to stay healthy. In the Elmo swine flu videos teach children they need to be washing their hands. Wash, wash, wash.

For years kids were told to cover their mouths with their hands when they sneezed or coughed. Not now. Elmo shows children the proper way to cover their mouths when they have to sneeze or cough. Elmo's swine flu videos say to cough or sneeze into the bend of your arm.

The Elmo swine flu videos also remind children they should not touch their eyes, nose or mouths since this is a good way to catch germs. Elmo is joined in the videos by fellow Sesame Street human friend Gordon who is played by Roscoe Orman.

The Elmo swine flu videos are just one attempt to better educate the American people about the H1N1 swine flu and the seriousness of it. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a recent update that as of August 27, 2009 that there had been 8,843 hospitalization and 556 deaths in the US, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

The peak of the swine flu cases is expected to be in October, but the numbers are already starting to increase in some areas as school has started back. It is possibly that half of the population in the US could suffer from the H1N1 swine flu and some White House advisers have said that potentially up to 90,000 Americans could die from it.

Here are some symptoms of the H1N1 swine flu to watch for in children. Fast or trouble breathing, bluish skin color, not drinking enough fluids, not waking up or not interacting, being so irritable that the child does not want to be held and a fever with rash or flu like symptoms that improve but return with worst cough. Any child with any of these symptoms should be seen by a doctor.

You can view Elmo's swine flu video here.

By following Elmo's advice of washing our hands and sneezing into our sleeves, then those numbers can be reduced. There are four 30 second Elmo swine flu public service announcements videos that will be aired this fall. The hope is that Elmo can get young children across America to do what their parents have been trying to teach them. Elmo does have a way with the kids, of all ages.

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