Health Highlights: Sept. 8, 2009

Sept. 9 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

HHS' Sebelius Counsels Kids with Asthma on Coming Swine Flu Season

The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services delivered a special message to students with asthma on Tuesday about how to stay healthy and avoid missing school as the H1N1 swine flu season approaches.

Kathleen Sebelius visited 7th graders at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Philadelphia. The school is a partner in the Merck Childhood Asthma Network (MCAN), which helps children better control their asthma.

Children with asthma are at high risk for complications from seasonal flu as well as the H1N1 swine flu virus. "Nothing is more important than keeping our children healthy, in school and ready to learn as we start the new school year," Dr. Floyd Malveaux, executive director of MCAN and former dean of the College of Medicine at Howard University, said in an MCAN news release.

Addressing students and their parents, Sebelius emphasized the value of education and the need to develop healthy habits to stay well.

"Staying healthy can be a challenge for students with asthma -- a factor that is even further complicated with the possibility of being exposed to the H1N1 virus, which can increase the severity of asthma symptoms, leading to possible hospitalizations," Malveaux said.

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CDC Chief Says His Kids Will Get Swine Flu Vaccine

Parents who may be concerned about getting their children vaccinated with the swine flu vaccine shouldn't be.

That's the word from the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas Frieden, who said his kids are going to get the vaccine when it becomes available, sometime next month. The agency chief said the vaccine is being made in the same way that the seasonal flu vaccine is made each year -- except that it's a new strain, the Associated Press reported.