From the Vincennes Sun Commercial
By Travis Snyder – tsnyder@suncommercial.com
VINCENNCES, Ind. (Nov. 20, 2009) - The H1N1 flu scare was getting so bad that health officials in the county were considering temporarily closing down Lincoln High School because of a high student absentee rate. Now the epidemic seems to have settled down, says Dr. Alan Stewart. “I’m pretty sure we’ve peaked,” Stewart said. “Now, there would be people who disagree. Steve Jones from the lab thinks we’re seeing as much, but they¹re just not saying it to the lab.”
Stewart spoke to members of the Kiwanis Club at their weekly meeting Thursday. Labs that examine nasal swabs used to test for H1N1 are seeing a decrease in the number of those swabs coming into be tested, Stewart said. “The physicians who are treating a lot of the time now … are not necessarily treating everyone with the nasal swab, so the number of tests we are getting for H1N1 are decreasing in the laboratory,” he said. “So we think it¹s decreasing, but that may not be a true indication of how much it’s decreasing.” He said a lower number of people going to the emergency room with flulike symptoms may also be an indication that the epidemic has passed.
According to Sandy Hatton, director of marketing and community health at Good Samaritan Hospital, only two patients were in the hospital with H1N1 as of Nov. 19. And the emergency room is seeing an average of about 13 patients a day that have flulike symptoms. Stewart said that number is about half of what the hospital saw a few weeks ago. The number of student absences at area schools has also gone down recently. “We were debating closing the high school. About two weeks ago, they had an 11 percent absentee rate and now it’s down to about 6 percent, so we think the epidemic has passed,” Stewart said.
But those decreasing numbers may be deceiving, Stewart notes. He said many patients are choosing to go to their private doctors, where they are being told “to stay home, take fluids, take aspirin and (are) treating them with (an) antibiotic,” as opposed to going to the emergency room for flulike symptoms. Regardless, Stewart believes the number of people infected with H1N1 is indeed decreasing. “It may be that the population is building up some immunity or it may be that the virus tends to self-mutate and then disappears,” he said. Influenzas tend to have an epidemic season that lasts a certain amount of time before they calm down, Stewart said, adding that there is a possibility H1N1 may resurface as a concern in future.
“My personal opinion is that we had a small peak in the spring, we got this predicted peak in the fall and it’s not my personal opinion, it’s the experts” and you might see another resurgence at some point in time,” he said. “But I think we¹re on the downward slope of it.”
Dr. Alan Stewart, a physician and the medical director of Community Health Services at Good Samaritan Hospital, spoke Thursday afternoon about the H1N1 virus during a Kiwanis Club meeting at the Knights of Columbus. Here are some of his answers to the most commonly asked questions about the virus.
- What is Type A Influenza?
“There are basically three types of influenza – A, B and C. A is the big player, and that’s what the H1N1 is. A is the one that causes our annual flu epidemic and it also has animal reservoirs. The big ones are like pigs and birds and things like that.”
- How can I avoid getting H1N1?
“If you’re sick, don’t go to work … Cover your cough, wash your hands, be careful in stores. I know a lot of stores here have the hand wipes and use those. Social distancing, if you¹re in the midst of the flu epidemic, don’t go to the grocery store at peak hours. Stay away from people.”
- What are the symptoms? How will I feel?
“It has the characteristics like the fever and the cough and so forth … The main thing is an elevated temperature. Usually, over 100 degrees, frequently 101 to 1003 … So the high temperature, usually it’s respiratory symptoms … but the most characteristic symptom that I noticed in my patients who had influenza was this horrendous muscle aching in the legs. You feel like you can’t get out of bed; you ache all over; your muscles hurt. And this muscle pain is the thing that is the most characteristic, in my opinion. Occasionally, you can get gastrointestinal symptoms - nausea, vomiting, diarrhea – but that really isn’t as common as the respiratory symptoms. The incubation period for this is two to four days after exposure.
“The other major characteristic is it’s hitting a younger population than the seasonal flu. This is affecting our youngsters, the children and young people less than age 65. It still affects people who are compromised, often people who really don’t have too much in the way of compromising illness do get it and can get seriously ill. And the things that create this serious illness aren’t completely clear. Although, again, it does appear that things such as diabetes and risk factors, including obesity, do have an effect … You can be well one day and get extremely ill and have respiratory failure the next. And again, it’s not a high instance that people get seriously ill, about one percent, just a little more than one percent, but for small children, it’s worth sitting up (with them at night) because if they’ve got a little respiratory distress or something like that they could get real sick, real fast.”
- Who is dying from H1N1 in Indiana?
“There have been 20 H1N1 deaths in Indiana, and four of those were under the age of 18. As of two weeks ago, nine of the 20 were two weeks ago. In this area, we’ve had two deaths -one in Evansville, it was a nurse, I believe at St. Mary’s. This nurse was involved in the delivery of a pregnant woman who had H1N1. The woman was in a hospital for an extended period of time and survived. The nurse contracted this and I believe she died. That’s kind of a secondhand story. There was a another adult not in our community who died from Petersburg. … We have had no deaths in our community that I am aware of at the present time.”
- What’s going on with the vaccine? Why can’t I get it?
“It’s free to the general public. One of the problems has been it uses eggs. People who are allergic to eggs shouldn’t be taking it. But the vaccine, I think, was a little slower than they had hoped it would be manufactured. And there has been distribution problems with it and getting supply fast enough. Locally, we’ve had influenza vaccine and there’s been some distribution problems. Right now we don’t know how many shots they’re getting, they get like a weekly (supply). We do have a distribution plan, but to this point in time, we haven’t gotten enough to give to our school children.”
- Are there any medications that will help treat it if I do get it?
“The good news is there are anti-influenza medications for this. There is Relenza and Tamiflu that are taken orally. Relenza does not seem to be too effective, but the Tamiflu is extremely effective. I shouldn’t say extremely, but it is effective. And the good news is that there appears to be a good supply, drug stores aren’t running out or anything.”
For more go to the Vincennes Sun Commercial.
