We had to take the Small One to the walk-in clinic last night as she had a urinary tract infection.
Unfortunately the wait was longer than normal because the doctors were hopelessly overwhelmed with people who were convinced they had SWINE FLU!!!111! (technically referred to as H1N1!!!111!.)
I asked one of the nurses, “All these people here for swine flu?” She said, “Yep.” I said, “Any of them have it so far?” She said “Well, you can’t really tell the difference between H1N1 and other types of flu. But probably not.”
So, you’re pitting people for taking their children to the doctor when the children are sick? Whether it’s H1N1 or not, if the kid is running a high fever and having respiratory issues, it’s probably a good idea to have a doctor take a look (and a listen to the lungs). Just because a parent seeks out medical care for his child does not mean he thinks the kid has the Plague. I mean, really, it was just a simple UTI and you totally panicked and ran to the doctor. Calm down already!
Don’t blame the sick people. Blame the media for positioning H1N1 as they possible next coming of the Spanish Flu pandemic. People get sick, they get worried, so they want to get checked out. Nothing wrong with that.
If any or all of the kids sitting there were entirely healthy and symptom-free, your thread has validity. If they were sick, the parents were perfectly justified in bringing them in. I’m assuming you didn’t have time to closely examine each child in the waiting room to see which category they fell into, so unless the parents were in the process of forming an unruly pitchfork-waving mob, I think this qualifies as dubious at best.
While acknowledging that it is not exactly the same type that caused the “Spanish flu”, it is also a variant of the H1N1 virus, and like any virus subject to mutation.
I don’t know that I’d want to roll the dice on that possibly happening again.
I agree with tacoloco. Although H1N1 can be serious, particularly for people with underlying conditions, the media has (as usual) blown it out of proportion, thus leading to people being frightened.
(coming up on news at 10: Certain death awaits you!)
In some cases, this strain has progressed quite quickly in otherwise healthy people, necessitating respirator/ventilator supported breathing within the first 24 hours. Scary.
We got our H1N1 shots Tuesday (in Compton- no line, too scary ), and our kids are getting them this weekend.
I had an opportunity to take the live virus inhalant but I didn’t want to because I was afraid of getting sick and being unable to work this weekend, and then I was laid out with the nastiest cold I’ve had in years. I guess it’s probably good I didn’t take the vaccine on top of that. I need to get the vaccine soon. My daughter’s pediatrician is waiting to get the dead injectable kind but he doesn’t have any yet.
Make sure they don’t have pneumonia, for one. Give Tamiflu if they have it and it’s indicated. Recommend a trip to the hospital, if it’s progressed to that point.
Of course it’s not the Black Death; nowadays we have medicines that treat that just fine.
First off, for most just waiting it out with TLC is fine. But some really do need to be seen early because this time they really should get on Tamiflu or Relenza early if they do seem like they have H1N1 - asthmatics, diabetics, people with epilepsy or other seizure disorders, those with neuromuscular or neurocogntive disorders, people with renal problems, people on immunosuppressants, people with chronic heart and cardiovascular conditions, kids under 2 years old, etc. That’s a lot of people who really should get seen who would look just fine to you in line.
Second, of course there is some hysteria made worse by contradictory messaging by not only media sources but by experts themselves.
Three, if someone has the fever longer than it should run with influenza (usually 3-4 days), or it goes away for a day or more and comes back, or they act out of it or have chest pain, or difficullty breathing, etc … they need to be seen. Most will do fine but a few will have pneumonias. Some of those will need to go in the hospital and some of those into an ICU. The death rate for H1N1 for those under 50 is such that one cannot really say “Oh it’s just the flu” in good faith.
What can a doctor do? Identify who needs the Tamiflu or Relenza and get it to them. (No not you, not you not you nor you, yes you for you it is worth it.) And find the person with the complication that needs intervention and treat it earlier rather than later.
It seems that there is NO effort at distributing this vaccine in any sort of a rational way to get it to the people who should be at the front of the line first.
Are you a household contact of someone under 6 months? A healthcare worker? Between 2-5 years old? They should go first for the nasal vaccine. THEN wait for the healthy 5 to 18 year olds, then those up to to age 24. Then a healthy adult over 24 should get it. Not before.
And part of the reason your daughter (if she is under 5) has not gotten the vaccine, even though she is in one of the highest risk groups for developing disease that ends her up in the hospital, is that some idiot handed out all the vaccine to a Board of Health elsewhere that is run by some schmuck who is giving it out to anyone, and certainly to people at lower risk than your daughter.
), and our kids are getting them this weekend.