HEALTH ALERT

Reye Syndrome awareness

A recent survey reveals that fewer parents than in the past would give aspirin to their children who had the flu or chicken pox, but those parents who would give aspirin were more likely to have older children.

Of 1,115 parents with children younger than 19 years, about 12 percent said they would give their children aspirin if they got the flu or chicken pox, atccording to a report in the December 1986 American Journal of Public Health. Just more than half of the respondents could recall the contraindication against giving aspirin and 40 percent named Reye Syndrome.