NEW ORLEANS - It's hard to believe as she plays that just a few weeks ago, 5-year-old Charli Scioneaux was anything less than energetic.
395291"I?felt like?I was going to puke," she said.
Charli also had a fever, a harsh cough and aches and pains all over.
"It was scary," said her dad Ron Scioneaux. "When my wife called and told me it's the flu,?I said is it the' flu, is it the H1N1?"
Doctors confirmed it was what is commonly called the swine flu. A?few days later,?Scioneaux's son Cade also tested positive for the H1N1 virus.
"I'm like, wow.?I was like, lets get ready for the big wave of the full blown illness we're going to see," he said.
The swine flu is emptying out classrooms, and filling doctor's offices throughout the state. Pediatrician Michael Wasserman said he has?tested well over?100 patients for the H1N1 virus this week alone.
"Today probably 50 percent are positive," he said.
The Centers for Disease control said children under?5 years of age?have an increased risk to complications from the swine flu.
Locally, Wasserman said most of his patients have been teenagers and children 8 to 12 years old. Adolescents are also at a higher risk of dying from the swine flu virus.
But Dr. Wasserman warns against over-hype of what has so far been a relatively minor viral illness.
"A?lot of kids are getting sick, a lot of kids are really miserable but the disease so far hasn't been very serious," he said.
Still, Gov. Bobby Jindal is preparing hospitals and schools across the state for a surge of cases, making sure hospitals have extra hospital beds and?ventilators, and that schools have a response plan in place.
Thursday, Charli and her brother have a clean bill of health. Scioneaux?hopes it never hits this close to home again.
"It wasn't as bad as we thought, we're thankful for that," he said.
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