Remember The Swine Flu?

[Doc Com]

Just heard on the local news that 3 Boy Scouts at a camp here in Western North Carolina have tested positive for the Swine Flu. And there has been more than 30 kids and Scout Masters who have also reported ill with flu like symptoms.

All told, there have been 64 confirmed cases in 35+ North Carolina counties.

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[stewie]

I heard on the news it was in over 70 countries.


http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/.../en/index.html

[Pink Misfit]

I was looking on the .gov website and it says over 70 countries. Here are some of the stats.

Confirmed cases
Argentina: 235
Australia: 1224
Austria: 5
Bahamas: 2
Bahrain: 1
Barbados: 2
Belgium: 14
Bolivia: 3
Brazil: 36
Bulgaria: 2
Canada: 2,446 and 4 deaths
Chile: 1,694 and 2 deaths
China: 142
Colombia: 35
Costa Rica: 93 cases and 1 death
Cuba: 5
Cyprus: 1
Czech Republic: 2
Denmark: 8
Dominica: 1
Dominican Republic: 91 and 1 death
Ecuador: 60
Egypt: 8
El Salvador: 69
Finland: 4
France: 71
Germany: 78
Greece: 5
Guatemala: 60
Honduras: 89
Hungary: 3
Iceland: 2
India: 4
Ireland: 12
Israel: 63
Italy: 50
Jamaica: 7
Japan: 485
Kuwait: 18
Lebanon: 8
Luxembourg: 1
Malaysia: 5
Mexico: 5,717 and 106 deaths
Netherlands: 22
New Zealand: 23
Nicaragua: 29
Norway: 9
Panama: 221
Paraguay: 16
Peru: 64
Philippines: 54
Poland: 6
Portugal: 2
Romania: 9
Russia: 3
Saudi Arabia: 1
Singapore: 18
Slovakia: 3
South Korea: 48
Spain: 331
Sweden: 16
Switzerland: 16
Thailand: 8
Trinidad and Tobago: 2
Turkey: 10
U.K.: 666
U.S.: 17,855 and 45 deaths
Uruguay: 24
Venezuela: 12
Vietnam: 15
Virgin Islands, British: 1

[Doc Com]

Yes, and 35+ COUNTIES in NC, if misread.

[stewie]

Here's a good place to get updates.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/.../en/index.html

[Doc Com]

Originally Posted by stewie

Found it... its actually nearly 30,000 cases in 74 Countries

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/.../en/index.html

It was recently Officially proclaimed a Pandemic by WHO, the first of the 21st century.

Again, not being an alarmist but just want to make people aware that this has not disappeared.

[buymydomainuk]

swine flu in the uk is now up to 1,000 - this won't be going out of the news any time soon!

[tetrapak]

A kid got hit by a meteorite in Germany, minor injuries. Panic?

[tristanperry]

Originally Posted by buymydomainuk

swine flu in the uk is now up to 1,000 - this won't be going out of the news any time soon!

Yeah, the news have shut up about it a bit though (probably the Government - rightly - instructing them not to make people panic).

It's good to be conscious of this though; it is a threat.

[Doc Com]

Originally Posted by tetrapak

A kid got hit by a meteorite in Germany, minor injuries. Panic?

Sounds like you did.

Glad you're okay.

[buymydomainuk]

well, its started to come into the headlines today because of the 1st UK death from swine flu...

[Doc Com]

Two days ago I related how 3 had been confirmed at a Boy Scout camp here in North Carolina.

I just saw this on MSNBC:

Boy Scout camp hit with positive swine flu cases
19 kids sent home with symptoms; 10 confirmed to have novel virus

RALEIGH, N.C. - Boy Scouts attending a camp near Asheville are being checked for swine flu after at least 19 Scouts from two states were sent home with symptoms and 10 tested positive for the disease.

Camp Daniel Boone executive Connie Bowes says no new cases were reported Monday. Bowes said a total of 38 Scouts and staff reported flu-like symptoms last week and sick staffers were quarantined.

A Scout Master with a Dunwoody, Ga., troop says eight of his scouts tested positive for swine flu and six others reported symptoms after last week's camp stay. A health official in Palm Beach County, Fla., says two Florida Scouts sent home last week tested positive and test results are awaited on others.
----------------------------
Again, be aware that this virus remains prevalent and this is not flu season. If you or someone you know displays flu like symptoms, get them to a facility immediately for screening.

TIP ONE: If someone displays this symptoms, it is better for THAT PERSON to wear a mask, as well as those present. The infected person should be the one primarily outfitted with a mask. Whenever we transport or work on someone with respiratory like symptoms (TB or other infectious diseases), it the infected person is masked there is a decrease in spreading those airborne illnesses.
-----------------------------
This is actually the very definition of a textbook example of how diseases spread. A group of individuals clustered in one place, one infected person, the spread is from person to person, those individuals then disperse carrying the infection.

Hopefully the carriers can be identified and this can be contained.

[Doc Com]

This pisses me off SO DAMN MUCH!

33 Babies Possibly Exposed To H1N1 At Women's Hospital
Staff Member Exposed While Treating Another Patient

I know this doctor, I know this hospital, and I know how this system and organization works.

Womens' Hospital in Greensboro is part of the Moses Cone Healthcare System.

Many times staff members are given too many patients to take care of or are pulled from one area, or one hospital, to another for coverage.

I have a pretty good guess how all of this came about. Typcially it involves an management decision to cut cost, cut staff, or not replace those staff positions when someone leaves.

This is a perfect example of so many faults in our system on a National level. Every one assumes that hospitals make money by the boat load.

Not true. So FAR, far away from the truth.

Look how many hospitals are being closed across the country or are up for sale.

On a personal level, how this cross contamination can happen is so preventable.

I have worked at hospitals where NO ONE, and I do mean NO ONE was allowed into NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Units) unless they were ASSIGNED TO THAT UNIT! I have been in these units and consider those people the top echelon on health care workers. I could never work those units for a number of reasons. Mostly because I can not stand when bad things happen to children or newborns.

In the units I have been in, they were the most vigilente and protective staff members I have ever encountered.

They trusted no one who was not part of their team. Why? Baby theft. Yes, it can and does and has happened. I do not know IF it has happened at this particular place but I know of one local hospital that I worked at.

Honestly, I hope these mega multiple hospital systems across the country pay particular attention to this news.

I am ever hopeful all will be fine and dandy. But this is one exposure that I know could have and should have been prevented.

[Doc Com]

Additional cases being reported at this hospital. They actually sent one person home who had to be called back because they tested positive.

Delayed test results are not that uncommon.

All babies and all staff members and 17 visitors are being treated with Tamiflu. There has been NO confirmed cases of any positive tests. I pray this stays the case.

The hospital is busy doing damage control. They are calling all people scheduled to come in to reassure them that the Women's Center is safe, clean, and no "reported" cases. Yesterday, I think I heard that they called 57 people. These are schedules deliveries, C-sections and so on.

This is a major birthing center in Greensboro and many people come here from smaller outlying communities.

The person who cross contaminated (again, not uncommon) is positive and being treated at home.

HERE ARE SOME TIPS FOR YOU AS A PATIENT:

If you feel flu like symptoms, don't delay being seen.
This is NOT flu season so ask yourself why you would have flu like symptoms.

As a patient, you have RIGHTS.
One of those rights is asking staff members to wash their hands (sink, soap & water) or hand washer with bacteriostatic contents (like Purell) before touching or treating you.

Many viruses can live outside the body for hours.
Person-to-Person contact is the number one spread of germs.
Good hand hygiene from you and medical staff can greatly decrease the spread.
And there is no better place to catch germs and viruses than a hospital.

If you have to go to the ER for anything, it is not a bad idea to take with you or ask for a surgical mask upon checking in.
The waiting room is full of who knows what. You can be exposed to any number of germs and viruses from people waiting to be seen.

Take precautions.

[aZooZa]

A couple of aspirin does the trick. A very over-hyped situation I think, save for the few that have mortally succumbed.

[Doc Com]

Originally Posted by aZooZa

A couple of aspirin does the trick. A very over-hyped situation I think, save for the few that have mortally succumbed.

Exposing 33 newborns and premmies is very serious. Virtually no immune system.

And careless.

I am sure that Hospital administration is praying that all turns out well for their own sake.

[aZooZa]

All in context Doc, I think. The stats speak volumes. It's just an excuse for a liitle WHO sabre rattling.

[Doc Com]

Originally Posted by aZooZa

All in context Doc, I think. The stats speak volumes. It's just an excuse for a liitle WHO sabre rattling.

I fully understand and appreciate what you are saying.

But the way this happened and how preventable it was pisses me off like a mother ****!

It is hospitals wanting to cut costs and reducing staff and pulling people from place to place. It is purely and totally 100% cross contamination. It was totally and 100% preventable.

Now the person that they suspected as being the carrier has tested positive. And, I just saw on local news that the number being treated who were exposed has JUMPED to 146!

Again, all totally preventable. Look at the cost now in lost revenue, man hours, and damage control if this hospital had acted responsibly in the first place. Cutting costs can cost lives. It is not worth it!

But I also want to stress that YOU, as a patient, have the RIGHT to requests those things that I pointed out earlier.

[Raider]

By reading Doc's thread, one would think the State of North Carolina and North Carolina ONLY is suffering from the Plague.

Just another one of Doc's Alarmist threads...

[aZooZa]

MRSA is a far more serious problem Doc at least in the UK. It killed my father so I'm particularly 'laissez faire' about swine flu.