The holidays are here and with them family, friends, parties and germs. This year, in light of the H1N1 outbreak, many fear that the most wonderful time of the year will end up being the unhealthiest, too.
"While crowded shopping malls and holiday parties certainly increase our risk of getting sick this time of year, there are many precautions you can take to stay healthy," said Gillian Stephens, M.D., assistant professor of family and community medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Here are Dr. Stephen’s top 10 strategies for protecting yourself and your family during the holidays:
Showing posts with label swine flu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swine flu. Show all posts
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Swine Flu Goes Feline
It's not just people and pigs, anymore. Washington Post blog The Checkup reports that a cat in Iowa has tested positive for the H1N1 virus, "marking the first time a cat has been diagnosed with this strain of influenza," according to state officials. The 13-year-old cat is believed to have caught the illness from one of the two humans in its household who battled swine flu. All members of the household, including the cat, recovered. H1N1 has now been documented in cats, humans, pigs, birds, and ferrets.
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Obama Declares Swine Flu A National Emergency
President Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect noninfected patients.
The declaration, signed Friday night and announced Saturday, comes with the disease more prevalent than ever in the country and production delays undercutting the government's initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses of the vaccine could be available by mid-October.
Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from the strain of flu known as H1N1, and 46 states have widespread flu activity. So far, only 11 million doses have gone out to health departments, doctor's offices and other providers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials.
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The declaration, signed Friday night and announced Saturday, comes with the disease more prevalent than ever in the country and production delays undercutting the government's initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses of the vaccine could be available by mid-October.
Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from the strain of flu known as H1N1, and 46 states have widespread flu activity. So far, only 11 million doses have gone out to health departments, doctor's offices and other providers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials.
Read more
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
White House: Swine flu could kill 90,000 in US
Swine flu could infect as much as half of the US population this fall and winter and cause up to 90,000 deaths, President Barack Obama’s science advisers warned Monday.
Laying out a “plausible scenario” for the epidemic’s impact in the United States, the report painted a grim picture of stress on the US health care system as it struggles to cope with a flood of flu patients.
The epidemic’s resurgence could “produce infection of 30-50 percent of the US population this fall and winter, with symptoms in approximately 20-40 percent of the population (60-120 million people), more than half of whom would seek medical attention,” the report said.
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Laying out a “plausible scenario” for the epidemic’s impact in the United States, the report painted a grim picture of stress on the US health care system as it struggles to cope with a flood of flu patients.
The epidemic’s resurgence could “produce infection of 30-50 percent of the US population this fall and winter, with symptoms in approximately 20-40 percent of the population (60-120 million people), more than half of whom would seek medical attention,” the report said.
Read more
Swine flu jumps again _ to turkeys in Chile
Chile said Friday that tests show swine flu has jumped to birds, opening a new chapter in the global epidemic.
Top flu and animal-health experts with the United Nations in Rome and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were monitoring the situation, but said the infected turkeys have suffered only mild effects, easing concern about a potentially dangerous development.
Chile's turkey meat remains safe to eat, the experts said, and so far there have been no signs of a deadly mutation. None of the birds have died from this flu, according to the farms' owner, Sopraval SA.
Top flu and animal-health experts with the United Nations in Rome and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were monitoring the situation, but said the infected turkeys have suffered only mild effects, easing concern about a potentially dangerous development.
Chile's turkey meat remains safe to eat, the experts said, and so far there have been no signs of a deadly mutation. None of the birds have died from this flu, according to the farms' owner, Sopraval SA.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Too much knowledge can exaggerate the danger of a pandemic
Amid the uncertainty over whether this swine flu outbreak will expand from a serious Mexican epidemic into the global pandemic long expected by public health authorities, one thing is certain.
As events unfold, the public will know more about the viral disease, its progress through human populations, what authorities are doing in response and what individual citizens can do for themselves, their families and their neighbours than at any time in human history.
This can be both a blessing and a curse.
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As events unfold, the public will know more about the viral disease, its progress through human populations, what authorities are doing in response and what individual citizens can do for themselves, their families and their neighbours than at any time in human history.
This can be both a blessing and a curse.
Read more
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Michelle Malkin and Michael Savage Use Swine Flu Crisis to Peddle Their Xenophobia
The right-wing pundits who seized on the swine flu to push their anti-immigrant rhetoric are employing an ancient racist tactic.
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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Workplace tension: Did you just cough on me?
The American workplace this week is starting to resemble a cross between a hypochondriac convention and those first few days of elementary school, when students are taught to wash their hands, cough into their elbows and throw away used tissue.
As the number of confirmed cases of swine flu grows and concerns mount, corporate America is grappling with how best to keep healthy employees well and at work in slimmed-down workplaces, and how to keep the sick ones home.
Corporate-wide e-mails containing tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are prevalent. Managers are making sure bathrooms are well-stocked with paper towels. Anti-bacterial hand sanitizers are being strategically placed where employees come in contact with the public.
Read more
As the number of confirmed cases of swine flu grows and concerns mount, corporate America is grappling with how best to keep healthy employees well and at work in slimmed-down workplaces, and how to keep the sick ones home.
Corporate-wide e-mails containing tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are prevalent. Managers are making sure bathrooms are well-stocked with paper towels. Anti-bacterial hand sanitizers are being strategically placed where employees come in contact with the public.
Read more
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Is the U.S. Prepared For a Flu Pandemic?
Not by Chinese standards. When swine flu virus reached Hong Kong yesterday, China was ready. What do they know about emergency preparedness that the U.S. can learn from?
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Swine flu virus starting to look less threatening
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Swine flu virus starting to look less threatening
Friday, May 01, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Why airlines might be more afraid of the swine flu than nervous passenger
U.S. airlines are scrambling to calm jittery passengers and investors while addressing growing public health concerns as the swine flu outbreak moves north of the Mexican border.
Travel to Mexico typically tails off this time of the year, a factor that may help officials contain the outbreak within the U.S., where relatively few cases no deaths have been reported, as yet.
But for carriers, the bigger concern is that airline passengers may stop traveling within the U.S. and to other overseas countries if the number of cases reported continues to rise rapidly.
The worst-case scenario? Fearful passengers would stay home droves, prompting a huge drop in air travel similar to the fall-off that surrounded the SARS epidemic in 2003. Offering shades of that earlier crisis, Hong Kong and Taiwan have warned that any passengers arriving with flu-like symptoms would be quarantined.
Read more
Travel to Mexico typically tails off this time of the year, a factor that may help officials contain the outbreak within the U.S., where relatively few cases no deaths have been reported, as yet.
But for carriers, the bigger concern is that airline passengers may stop traveling within the U.S. and to other overseas countries if the number of cases reported continues to rise rapidly.
The worst-case scenario? Fearful passengers would stay home droves, prompting a huge drop in air travel similar to the fall-off that surrounded the SARS epidemic in 2003. Offering shades of that earlier crisis, Hong Kong and Taiwan have warned that any passengers arriving with flu-like symptoms would be quarantined.
Read more
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