Halloween's newest spooky fear: H1N1

Among the usual health and safety warnings issued each Halloween season, as kids prepare to go out in the dark and visit strangers, comes the latest spooky fear:

Do those bowls of candy kids are reaching for provide the means of spreading swine flu?

“It's a possibility,” deputy Sonoma County Public Health Officer Mark Netherda said.

But like other experts, Netherda said the problem is easily ameliorated by having someone in good health with clean hands pass out the candy instead of letting kids grab for it - or even scoop it with a utensil into trick-or-treaters' bags.

“The designated dispenser - instead of the designated driver,” Netherda said - though he's in favor of the latter, too.

The H1N1 virus that causes swine flu can survive for as long as eight hours once its deposited on a surface.

Spreading it through candy wrappers and bowls is somewhat hypothetical, Netherda said, though one can imagine a young trick-or-treater wiping his nose, reaching for a candy and leaving behind some unwanted contaminants that could infect the next child if he or she were to touch his eyes, nose or mouth.

The fix is to do the kind of things health experts have been advising for months: use tissues, keep hands clean and avoid touching one's nose, mouth and eyes.

“It would be kind of the same things we've been asking people to do,” Netherda said.

Makes sense to Sonoma County parents, several of whom said Thursday that they make a habit of handing out the candy anyway, if only to combat greed.

But most discounted the notion that H1N1 could find an ally in trick-or-treating, many saying their kids had been exposed or sickened already.

“I'm not concerned at all,” Santa Rosa mother Christy Martinez said outside a local discount store on Thursday. “Kids are exposed to more at school than they would be trick-or-treating.”

Dr. Gary Green, an infectious disease specialist at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa agrees. He said he'd be far more concerned about toys passed around from child to child in a preschool or daycare setting than kids transmitting the disease via candy.

If viruses were easily spread that way, there would be regular spikes in cold and seasonal flu after Halloween each year, and there have not been, he said.

He said having kids outside probably poses less of a transmission risk than having them crowded together indoors.

“I think there is only a small risk there,” he said.

Robin Baum, who has an 11-year-old son, said she'd already considered the possibility that a candy bowl could serve as a kind of petri dish.

But Baum, a Windsor resident, said she always hands out her candy and has vaccinated her son, so he should be OK.

“If you're going to get it, you're going to get it,” Santa Rosa mom Candice Schwarm said, suggesting many kids' behaviors, like knuckle bumping, were more likely to spread disease.

Netherda said the entire issue provides an opportunity to consider the various safety issues that arise on Halloween, particularly this year since it falls on Saturday.

Adults attending parties need to designate drivers and “think about the fact that there's going to be kids out on the streets as well, so drive safely and take precautions,” Netherda said.

Experts additionally advise parents to ensure their kids have flashlights, glow sticks or reflectors so that can easily be seen; take care they aren't wearing masks that limit eyesight or costumes on which they can trip; consider flame-resistant costumes and wigs and advise kids to stay away from open flames; and remind them not to enter homes of people they don't know and to travel safely on busy streets.

Candy that's unwrapped or unsealed also should be thrown away, experts say.

Netherda also suggested a smart approach to a tradition centered on sweets in light of the country's epidemic of obesity. Instead of candy, folks can hand out inexpensive trading cards, stickers, erasers or pencils, for example.

Parents can also limit the amount of candy their children consume.

“It just makes better health sense,” he said.