|
Continued from Page 2
Judy Rotthoff, RN, studies influenza at the University
of Michigan School of Public Health. She said some health
care providers do not understand even basic facts about
the flu. For example, influenza can be only a respiratory
virus-stomach flu does not exist-that affects the upper
chest, including the lungs, trachea and bronchi.
Furthermore, nurses should know that patients who call
in complaining of fever and aches during flu season
may need to be prescribed antiviral medications immediately,
rather than the old "take two aspirin and call
me in the morning."
"You need to take it within the first 48 hours,"
she said. Antivirals work by stopping the virus from
reproducing.
"If you wait four or five days, then you have
a bunch of virus circulating," she said.
Nurses in emergency rooms also can help prevent the
spread of the virus. Trisha Flanagan, MSN, RN, works
as a clinical nurse specialist in the emergency department
at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
On any given day, her triage room can have neonatal
babies, geriatric patients and everyone in between-all
of whom must be protected.
She watched admissions to the emergency department
surge 10 percent to 6,600 in December.
"You feel every one of those over 6,000,"
she said. "It was like an assembly line of nasal
swabs."
Flanagan's ED instituted guidelines to those waiting
for care: Coughers must wear a mask (or use a tissue)
to prevent the spread of droplets containing flu that
are released in a 3-foot radius when people talk, laugh
or cough. This is the most common way the flu is spread.
Less frequently, a person is infected by touching an
object containing a virus droplet, then touching his
mouth or nose.
"The mask initiative has been very successful,"
Flanagan said.
The hospital also warms up for flu season by educating
its staff with posters, e-mails and one-on-one classes.
In the second week of January, the CDC reported this
year's flu season may have peaked, but the season is
far from over, Pascoe said.
"Will we get a second wave?" he asked. Last
year, Texas had a second wave of B strain that closed
more than 70 school districts for more than one day.
Any bad flu season meets the criteria for epidemic,
but the far more serious pandemic occurs when a strain
"shifts" or differs significantly from the
contents of the vaccine.
"We're overdue for a pandemic," Noa said.
In such a crisis, she said, death rates are high, even
in young, healthy adults.
Rotthoff referred to the Spanish flu of 1918, a pandemic
in which an estimated 20 million people died, although
scientists think the number may be closer to 40 million.
"Spanish flu killed young, healthy people, sometimes
within hours," Rotthoff said. "They still
don't know why it was so lethal."
A pandemic could mean a shutdown of everything because
police, health care workers, teachers and parents fall
ill.
"Who is going to take care of you?" asked
Rotthoff, rhetorically.
Respect the flu before the bad season hits, she said.
"As long as you have birds, mammals and people
living together, flu is going to be around," she
said. "Because it's a smart virus and is able to
change, it's unpredictable what will happen in the future."
Contact Heather World at h_world@yahoo.com
|
Reply
to Article
