Why Aren't Children Considered Biohazards?

Those nasty little boogers are just teaming with infection. They are constantly bringing home their own personal little petri dish of fun on a daily basis. What is worse, is that when they actually succumb to one of the illnesses, they don't usually suffer as badly as their adult counterparts.

Two weeks ago, Noah had a little cough, a little sniffle and complained once of a sore throat. He never had fever so I just assumed it was the change in climate ( coming back to NJ from Texas) and sent him to school.

Last week, I got a tickle in my throat. Then, my throat started to hurt a little. By Thursday, the congestion in my chest was breaking up and I thought I was on the upswing. Then Saturday, my throat started hurting again. This time it was different and I recognized, beyond a shadow of a doubt that pain... strep throat. I've only had it one other time in my life and it is an unforgettable pain.

One of my friends had a similar week last week, except with a different "germ" and different symptoms. She and her entire family had that stomach bug that is going around and I will spare you the details she gave me over the phone, but I will just say that I do NOT want that one! Her son goes to the same school as my son. She was better by Friday but called me this morning to tell me that she went to the base clinic with an awful sore throat... and tested positive for strep. Nasty kids.

So, as a completely unrelated topic that will tie back into this by the end of the story- I am co-chair of a scholarship committee. Every year in January, we send out letters to the music directors of all the high schools in our county inviting them to nominate one of their seniors for the scholarship. I have printed out all the letters and application materials and sat today and folded them all to get ready to stuff in envelopes. I had a little assembly line set up but my hands were dry, so I did what everyone else does ( come on, you KNOW you do), I began licking my fingers while sorting the papers. It was only after I folded all thirty-eight letters that I realized I had just put my strep-infested saliva on a vast majority of the letters.

Does anyone know the incubation period of the streptococcus bacteria? I'm hoping once the saliva dried it was gone. I'm also crossing my germ-infested fingers that there isn't an unexplained epidemic of strep cases among my county's high school musicians in the near future. *whistling innocently*