The CNN report that 'Walking well' flood hospitals with -- or without -- flu symptoms
'Walking well' flood hospitals with -- or without -- flu symptoms
By Madison Park
A runny nose. A cough. A sore throat. And even pork eaten a week ago.
After a week of headlines about the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, many emergency rooms and hospitals are crammed with people, many of whom don't need to be there.
The visits by the "worried well" have triggered concerns of overburdening the nation's hospitals and emergency departments, several health care professionals told CNN.
This week, some hospitals saw record numbers of patients. A few emergency departments shut down to paramedics because of overcrowding.
"We have had a lot of nervous patients with minimal respiratory tract symptoms," said Dr. Mark Bell, principal of Emergent Medical Associates, which operates 18 emergency departments in Southern California. "It has caused signficiant amount of delays in emergency care. They're all walking well."
"I haven't seen such a panic among communities perhaps ever," Bell said. "We are spending significant time in the emergency department, calming people down. Right now, people think if they have a cough or a cold, they're going to die. That's a scary, frightening place to be in. I wish that this hysteria had not occurred and that we had tempered a little bit of our opinions and thoughts and fears in the media. It just went haywire."
In California, triage tents were set outside. Clinics doubled their traffic in major cities like Dallas, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois. In the Los Angeles area, some Emergent Medical Associates locations shut down their paramedic traffic.
"We're closing to the real emergencies that may be befalling our community," said Bell. "There is a little sense of hysteria among the community about the H1N1 virus."
Emergency rooms are usually crowded and "if you increase that volume, you're throwing them right over the edge," said Bill Briggs, president of the Emergency Nurses' Association.
"This has the potential to clog the system and emergency departments already facing serious crowding issues throughout the U.S.," said Briggs, a registered nurse at Tufts Medical Center, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Some came to the hospital because they reported eating pork and having a cough, and thought this meant they had H1N1 virus. Though commonly known as swine flu, this virus is not contracted through eating pork products.
Even in cities that have yet to have a confirmed case of H1N1, health care workers have noticed an uptick in the number of patients. The Minute Clinic, a walk-in health care chain that has 500 offices around the country, saw a 50 percent increase in flu-related visits Thursday.
Chicago Children's Memorial Hospital's emergency department had more than double their average number of patients this week.
"It was a lot of 'worried well' people," said Cathleen Shanahan, the nursing director for the emergency department at the hospital. "A lot of parents who were worried they about the flu."
The anxiety is understandable, but Shanahan cautioned, "At some point, they need to realize it's still flu season and it could be a normal flu season, and have nothing to do with [H1N1] flu."
"The situation is that people get the flu all the time," said Dr. Nick Jouriles, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "H1N1 flu is just a bad strain of that. If you have flu symptoms and you ordinarily see the doctor for that, go ahead. If you would not ordinarily go to the doctor, don't."
If a person has no symptoms, then he does not need to seek emergency care, said Jouriles, an emergency room doctor at Akron General Medical Center in Akron, Ohio. And if the person does not have a fever or cough, it is extremely unlikely it's the H1N1 virus.
"Very often when this happens, people naturally become afraid and overinterpret every symptom as a harbinger of the flu or what the epidemic is," said Dr. Jeffrey Steinbauer, professor of family medicine and the medical director of the Baylor Clinic in Houston, Texas. "That's part of providing care to patients and it's kind of expected."
Rather than panicking when you have a cough or runny nose, Steinbauer advised finding more objective measures.
"A temperature is very objective," Steinbauer said. "If the temperature is normal, the allergens in the world and other viruses in the world can give you cough and runny nose. But if you don't have a fever, chances of it being a flu is very low."
While, the symptoms of the current swine flu and seasonal flu are very similar, reports suggest that this flu virus may result in nausea, vomiting and diarrhea more often than the typical flu. Symptoms include excrutiating body pains, difficulty breathing, significant nasal congestion and high fever. Doctors in Mexico have reported seeing sudden dizziness as well.
Health care workers find themselves trying to balance caution while allaying fears and panic about the virus.
"We recognize this as an infectious disease, this is moving," Dr. Robert Salata, the chief of Infectious Diseases at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. "For the general population, we're trying to calm the fears of people and the worried well, by stressing other elements like cough and sneezing etiquettes, and that you shouldn't go to work if you're feeling sick. If there is a concern, working through this with your physicians would be very important."
But dashing into the emergency department because of a runny nose is not helpful.
"We have a tendency in the U.S. to abuse our emergency departments," Salata said. "If this escalates, you want to use them for people that are not having mild or moderate symptoms."
The BBC News reports that Flu bans heighten trade tensions
Flu bans heighten trade tensions
Mexico says it has written to the World Trade Organization (WTO), demanding an explanation from countries which have restricted its imports over swine flu.
Economy Minister Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said such bans lacked a basis in science and would not be permitted.
Among others, Russia and China have banned pork products or pigs from Mexico and other affected countries.
Of 1,490 infections verified in 20 countries, 30 people have died - 29 in Mexico, and one in the US.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging nations to remain vigilant, saying a global pandemic still threatens.
It is shipping 2.4 million anti-flu treatments donated by Tamiflu manufacturer Roche to 72 countries "most in need" of them, including Mexico and countries finding it hard to pay to stockpile adequate supplies.
Normal life is beginning to resume in Mexico, with traffic returning to the streets of the capital and some bars reopening. Schools and universities are set to reopen on Thursday.
In other developments:
· China extends its ban on pork products to 17 more US states, bringing the total number to 36, reports Reuters news agency
· Dozens of Mexicans are being flown home from China on a specially-chartered Mexican plane. They are among about 70 Mexicans confined despite just one confirmed case of the virus. The issue sparked a diplomatic row, with Mexico accusing China of targeting its citizens unfairly, and Beijing saying it was a "purely medical" issue
· The UK is delivering specially-produced leaflets offering advice on swine flu and advice on how to prevent its spread
'Unjustified barriers'
Mr Ruiz Mateos said a complaint had been sent to the WTO regarding eight countries which have imposed restrictions on Mexican exports, arguing the restrictions lack a scientific basis.
The trade restrictions are among tough measures imposed by some countries in an apparent bid to tackle the spread of swine flu, which the WHO currently rates as a level five threat - meaning a pandemic is "imminent".
The eight identified by Mr Ruiz Mateos are China, Russia, the UAE, Ukraine, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras and Azerbaijan.
"We won't permit unjustified barriers on Mexican exports," Mr Ruiz Mateos told a news conference. He said the countries he had singled out were not big trading partners with Mexico, but the action sought to ward off similar measures by other countries.
Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens said the government was set to offer measures such as temporary tax relief to companies hit by the crisis, and that this would likely cost the economy some 17.4bn pesos ($1.3bn; £873m) overall.
Several of the countries which have found their pork exports banned as a result of swine flu have argued there is no proof that the infection can be caught by eating pork - a stance backed by scientists, says BBC business reporter Rodney Smith.
The tough measures taken by some countries have already increased some tensions, particularly in the areas of trade and travel links. Chinese authorities are taking no risks with the quarantined Mexicans But, speaking after imposing a ban on British pork, Nikolai Vlasov, Russia's chief veterinary inspector, defended the measures.
"We are constantly told that pork is not dangerous," Mr Vlasov said, according to Associated Press news agency. "But at the same time, nobody has proved that it is safe."
As well as the UK, Russia has banned pork products from Spain, parts of Canada and the United States. It has banned all meat imports from Mexico, Central American and Caribbean countries. China has banned imports of live pigs and pork products from 15 countries including several in central Asia, central America and Europe, as well as several US states and the Canadian province of Alberta.
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The CNN reports that Hyteria over swine flu is the real danger, some say
Hysteria over swine flu is the real danger, some say
By Faith Karimi CNN
(CNN) -- As the number of swine flu cases rises around the world, so is a gradual backlash -- with some saying the threat the virus poses is overblown.
By Monday, 985 cases of the virus, known as influenza A (H1N1), had been confirmed in 20 countries, the World Health Organization said. The number of fatalities was at 26, including one in the United States.
"There is too much hysteria in the country and so far, there hasn't been that great a danger," said Congressman Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas. "It's overblown, grossly so."
Paul, who was a freshman congressman during a swine flu outbreak in 1976, said Congress voted to inoculate the whole country at the time.
Twenty-five people died from the inoculation while one person was killed by the flu, Paul said, adding that he voted against inoculation.
The United States' only death this year from the virus was a 22-month-old boy in Texas who was visiting from Mexico. The other 25 deaths happened in Mexico.
"I wish people would back off a little bit," Paul said.
Others shared Paul's sentiment, saying the fear of the flu has gotten out of hand.
"We have people without symptoms going into the emergency rooms asking to be screened for swine flu at the expense of people with real illness," said Cathy Gichema, a nurse in Pikesville, Maryland.
"Schools are being shut for probable causes -- sending these kids congregating to the malls. How is that helping?" Gichema said.
Dr. Mark Bell, principal of Emergent Medical Associates, which operates 18 emergency departments in Southern California, said the level of fear is unprecedented.
"I haven't seen such a panic among communities perhaps ever," Bell said. "Right now, people think if they have a cough or a cold, they're going to die. That's a scary, frightening place to be in. I wish that this hysteria had not occurred and that we had tempered a little bit of our opinions and thoughts and fears in the media."
Governments and health officials, however, say the concern is not unfounded.
The virus, a hybrid of swine, avian and human flu, can jump from person to person with relative ease. And while most of the cases were reported in Mexico and the United States, some have been confirmed in countries outside North America.
On Saturday, the virus strain was found in a herd of swine in Alberta, Canada, and the animals may have caught the flu from a farmer who recently returned from a trip to Mexico.
It could be the first identified case of pigs infected in the recent outbreak.
"We have determined that the virus H1N1, found in these pigs, is the virus which is being tracked in the human population," said Brian Evans of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
But Evans and other officials said it is not uncommon for flu viruses to jump from humans to animals, and that it does not pose a risk for consuming pork. The number of pigs infected was not disclosed.
In his weekly radio address Saturday, President Obama said the concerns over the new virus are justified because lack of immunity makes it potentially risky.
"Unlike the various strains of animal flu that were in the past, it's a flu that is spreading from human to human. This creates the potential for a pandemic, which is why we are acting quickly and aggressively," Obama said.
The president, who said the virus is a "cause for concern but not alarm," added the government has anti-viral treatment to treat the current strain of H1N1.
In addition, WHO started distributing 2.4 million doses of a common anti-viral drug to 72 nations.
"I think the world is infinitely better prepared than it was 90 years ago," said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl, referring to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed as many as 20 million people.
In Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, masks have become a common fixture. Nearly half the cases in Mexico involve patients 19 and younger, the health ministry said.
"I can hold for maybe another week or two and that's it," said Guillermo Jimenez, a waiter who hasn't worked in a week since the government ordered about 35,000 public venues to shut down. "We don't have any money. We have mouths to feed. I don't know what I'm going to do now."
Still, some say the hype over H1N1 has led to undue hysteria.
"I'm sure the deaths in Mexico have something do with the infrastructure," said Anthony Markovich, a graduate student in Marina del Ray, California. "I know our health care system has its flaws, but it is more advanced."
The world should focus on diseases that have more fatalities, according to Markovich.
"This is a joke compared to other things going on," he said. "Malaria is killing thousands of people daily, the economy is not getting any better, it is time to move on."
Pakistan resident Faisal Kapadia agreed."When you put it in context, 700 cases in the world is nothing," said Kapadia, a commodities trader in Karachi. "I understand it is a horrible new disease and governments should find a cure for it, but the media has created too much paranoia."
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My reaction: The rising cases of swine flu sent a wave of panic around the world. People are panic and paranoid about its.
1. It’s good to prepare and prevent this flu but don’t be panic. The panic will lead everything to be worse.
2. American people are panic with the swine flu. When they have a cough and cold, they are paranoid that they infected swine flu. Even though the swine flu and seasonal flu are similar but the swine flu may result in vomiting and diarrhea more often than the seasonal flu.
“Symptoms include excrutiating body pains, difficulty breathing, significant nasal congestion and high fever.”
So, if your symptoms are not including of above list, it’s unnecessary to be panic.
3. The origins of the flu, also known as the A (H1N1) strain, are unclear. It is no proof that this strain of influenza ever came from a pig, but WHO verified that swine flu is human to human transmission. So, Pork is not dangerous.
"We are constantly told that pork is not dangerous but at the same time, nobody has proved that it is safe,"
4. The panic of swine flu leads to the crisis of economy. China and Russia have banned Pork products or pig from Mexico. So don’t make the situation go off. Banning Pork product or pig from Mexico can't stop the epidemic of swine flu.
5. Don't be panic but you you should be awareness, know how to protect yourself from this flu.
6. The Media also are one of the causes that make people be panic. For example,
The Times: ” Outbreak fears for hundreds of children.”
The Sun: “PIG FLU OUT OF CONTROL.”
The Daily Mail: “Hundreds of Brits “will get swine flu in weeks”…and pandemic could strike 40% of us.”
source: Zebra-Mbizi
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Conclusion:
After the swine flu epidemic in Mexican and South America sent a wave of panic around the world.
The paranoia becomes another disease that spread in America. The emergency rooms at hospitals are crammed with people, many of whom don’t have any symptom; they asked to be screened for swine flu. So, a few emergency departments shut down because of overcrowding. Some schools are being close. China has banned Pork products or pigs from Mexico and some state of American.
Pople are acting quickly and aggressively to this situation but reality, the situation isn't that bad if it's compared with the latest outbreak like SARS that was worse than the swine flu.
"When you put it in context, 700 cases in the world is nothing," said Kapadia, a commodities trader in Karachi.
