Tuesday, Sep. 01, 2009

Swine flu: Don't panic, but be informed

The swine flu virus stuck around through the summer, and health officials expect the number of cases to explode as the school year brings youngsters together in large numbers.

Parents shouldn’t panic, but they need to stay informed. Here’s a swine flu primer based on information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control:

H1N1: The official designation for this variety of swine flu. Usually a respiratory disease limited to pigs, a variation of the virus spread to humans and now is passed from human to human like seasonal flu, often via water droplets in coughs and sneezes. The World Health Organization designated H1N1 as a pandemic, which means it is a new virus spreading worldwide for which humans have no immunity.

Symptoms: Similar to regular seasonal flu, including fever, body aches, cough, sore throat, runny nose and lethargy. For otherwise healthy victims, swine flu symptoms often have been less severe than seasonal flu. Some have kicked the disease in three or four days, rather than the seven to nine days often required to beat seasonal flu. But the virus is serious enough to have killed 1,462 people worldwide through Aug. 6, according to WHO. (Seasonal flu is a factor in about 36,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.) Most people who have died from swine flu had other chronic health problems before contracting the flu.

Prevention: Wash hands well and often, cough into a tissue or the crook of your elbow, stay home when you’re sick. The basics for seasonal flu still apply. The other suggested steps include getting plenty of sleep, eating well and staying away from people with coughs and runny noses. Face masks can be expensive if worn constantly and ineffective if not used correctly. Health officials recommend masks only if you know you will be or have been in tight quarters with someone exhibiting flu symptoms, or if you have symptoms yourself.

Treatment: Consult your physician. If you have the symptoms, your doctor won’t be able to determine immediately if you have swine flu or some other virus. At this point, the vast majority of cases are swine flu, and many doctors aren’t even testing for the exact flu strain. If the virus has been detected early enough, you will be prescribed an anti-viral drug such as Tamiflu or Relenza, which can lessen the severity of the symptoms. Otherwise, rest and fluids will be prescribed.

Schools: Pay attention to the messages. School districts plan to get the word out about notable outbreaks or closings in phone messages, Web site notices and letters sent home from school. The CDC guidelines discourage school closings unless an outbreak is so severe the school no longer can perform its regular functions. New guidelines suggest children with flu-like symptoms shouldn’t return to school until 24 hours after fever subsides.

Shots: A swine flu vaccine could be available as early as late October, and details on any inoculation program won’t be finalized for several weeks. The CDC expects the vaccine will require two shots, three weeks apart. Because this virus has spread more quickly among young people, the vaccine will go first to pregnant women, health care workers, those with chronic health problems and people ages 6 months to 24 years. Senior citizens are last on the list of vaccine priorities because they have contracted the disease at a rate of only 1.3 cases per 100,000 people. The rate for ages 5-24 has been 26.7 per 100,000 people. State officials expect to offer the inoculations for students at schools.

Mythbusters: You can’t get the swine flu from eating pork. You can’t get the flu from flu vaccines. But you can catch the flu despite getting a vaccine (it’s not perfect). Winter isn’t the only flu season; the swine flu virus has remained potent through the summer. The seasonal flu vaccine won’t work against the swine flu, and vice versa.

Reach Holleman at (803) 771-8366.

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WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STAY HEALTHY

• Stay informed. The CDC Web site (cdc.gov/H1N1FLU) will be updated regularly.

• Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.

• Take these everyday actions to stay healthy:

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

• Stay home if you get sick. CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

• Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.

• Find healthy ways to deal with stress and anxiety.

SOURCE: CDC

AT THE CDC

Swine flu stands as the most pressing challenge to public health, according to officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts acknowledge there are still more questions than answers about the threat of outbreaks this fall and winter.

• The CDC will use phone surveys to track how many Americans are experiencing flulike symptoms. It's not possible to test everyone for H1N1, so the surveys will help determine how far and fast the flu spreads.

• Handkerchiefs may become fashionable again to cover coughs and sneezes, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius teased at last week’s briefing. Sebelius also said that even if there aren't major outbreaks of swine flu, the build-up has tested the country's preparedness for natural disasters and pandemics.

• Because it's so confusing to differentiate between flu viruses, CDC officials considered naming the viruses like hurricanes, joked Daniel Jernigan, deputy director of the influenza division.

• Members of the School Nutrition Association have visited the CDC to talk about plans for continuing the free breakfast and lunch programs in the event of a severe outbreak among schoolchildren.

• About one in three people get the flu shot each year. People over 65 have the best vaccination rates at 60 to 70 percent. Just 15 percent of pregnant women get the shot.

• The CDC has tissues preserved from the lungs of military officers that contain the Spanish H1N1 flu of 1918. They can't identify earlier viruses because they don't have any older tissues.

— St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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