Swine Flu & Staying Healthy

Swine flu is sweeping across the country and with no vaccine to protect against this virus, people are taking precautions to not get sick and stay healthy.

Swine flu, or H1N1, is a new virus of swine origin and is causing an intensifying outbreak in the United States. Swine flu is compared to regular seasonal influenza and spreads through coughs and sneezes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the Unites States a total of 6,764 cases and 10 deaths have been reported, with numbers going up every day, according to the CDC. Currently there is no vaccine for swine flu.

“One of the problems is the organisms are evolving and changing, which makes the flu virus change and come back totally different every year,” said Robert Stephenson, Nurse Manager of Health and Wellness Services.

In order to combat swine flu many states are working to identify, investigate appropriate treatment and prevent the spread of this virus to others, according to King County’s Public Health.

“An increased public health monitoring and surveillance includes: Actively alerting health care providers, hospitals, and clinical laboratories about swine flu and asking them to contact Public Health immediately if they suspect swine flu in a patient, increasing the amount of influenza testing done by King County health care providers to help detect swine flu, working with hospitals and healthcare providers to identify unusual cases of illness that might be due to swine flu, tracking the amount of emergency department visits for influenza like illness and pneumonia and educating the public about swine flu, including what symptoms to look out for, how to identify if the risk for swine flu is increased (for example through travel to an area where swine flu is occurring) and when to seek medical care,” according to King County’s Public Health.

King County’s Public Health is also preparing for a flu epidemic.

“Stockpiled medications to treat influenza in accordance with national guidelines, created public education campaigns about pandemic flu, focused on the needs of vulnerable populations, helped expand the capacity of the health care system to care for patients during a severe pandemic and created the King County Health Care Coalition to help prepare for and coordinate county wide medical responses during health emergencies,” according to King County’s Public Health.

After summer, students will be flocking back to school for the upcoming year, but with a possible pandemic the Health and Wellness Services are prepared.

“The Health and Wellness has a strategic stock pile of drugs created for the bird flu that will be released for people with confirmed cases of swine flu,” said Stephenson. “These drugs do not kill the virus but keep it from replicating; it lessons the severity.”

Alongside the stockpile of drugs, there are other precautions that people can take to reduce the risk of getting swine flu.

“Make sure to wash your hands frequently, cover your mouth if you sneeze or cough, because the droplets have a six foot range,” said Stephenson. “Also if you are sick, do not go to school or work, and if you have a fever or cough contact student health.”

Every day the cases and deaths of swine flu are growing and the need for preventions and precautions are a top priority. As the United States waits for a vaccine for this new intensifying flu it is best to know the possibilities of a future flu pandemic.

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