Officials urge those sick with flu to stay home

By Michelle Dupler, Herald staff writer

Health officials are encouraging people who think they have swine flu to stay home and let the virus run its course, and to only go to emergency rooms if seriously ill and not getting better.

Tri-City hospitals are seeing increasing numbers of people coming to emergency rooms with flulike symptoms wanting to be tested for H1N1 influenza, known as swine flu, or get vaccinated or be given a dose of Tamiflu antiviral medication.

But Dr. Larry Jecha said most people who are sick with swine flu don't need professional medical care and may be putting others at risk by showing up in ERs.

"When you have the flu, you feel terrible and really would like a quick cure," said Jecha, health officer for the Benton-Franklin Health District. "Most people would do best staying at home and not going out to seek medical care. This is a new virus, H1N1, but the best treatment is still rest at home and monitoring for severe symptoms."

Tamiflu won't do much to help most people, and the vaccine isn't yet available in the Tri-Cities, he said.

"Tamiflu just improves symptoms for one day, so it's not doing a whole lot," Jecha said. "It's really only necessary in those hospitalized who have significant flu symptoms. It's not for run-of-the-mill aches and pains and coughs and fever."

Those who are sick should stay home, get plenty of rest and liquids, and take non-aspirin fever reducers such as Tylenol.

The time to seek medical treatment for children is when they're having trouble breathing, a fever accompanied by a rash, bluish skin color, dehydration and trouble waking up, Jecha said.

If symptoms improve but come back or get worse, that's also time to go to the doctor, he said.

For adults, symptoms indicating the need for medical treatment are trouble breathing, pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen, sudden dizziness, confusion and severe or persistent vomiting.

Typical flu symptoms that may not need medical attention are fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue.

The hospital also is not the place to go for swine flu vaccine, Jecha said.

State health officials said the first doses of the vaccine, in the form of a nasal spray, should start arriving today. But Washington initially will get only 71,000 doses -- enough to vaccinate only a tiny fraction of the state's nearly 6.7 million people.

Jecha said the health district has ordered vaccine, but is limited to 2,600 doses per week, meaning only select groups of at-risk people will be vaccinated when it arrives, likely within the next week.

The nasal spray vaccine contains live, weakened flu virus and cannot be used for pregnant women, the group Jecha considers most at-risk.

Health care workers are the next highest-risk group, so they'll get the first doses. Jecha wasn't sure when the vaccine might be available for the general public.

"There is plenty that will be available, but it will be a long time coming," he said. "We will let the community know when we get them and when they will be generally available."

Jecha said he's worried about the effect on other ER patients if hospitals become overwhelmed with people with relatively mild cases of the flu.

"When we clog up the ERs, we are doing the community a disservice, especially if those are unwarranted visits because real emergencies can't be seen in a timely manner and you're exposing other people to flu," Jecha said. "It's not good medicine to have big pile-ups at the ERs."

Kadlec Regional Medical Center usually averages 165 emergency room patients per day, but has seen more than 200 per day in the first week of October, said hospital spokesman Jim Hall.

About 30 to 40 are showing up with flulike symptoms, but most are being sent home to wait out their illness. Only about one person every other day is sick enough to be admitted to the hospital, Hall said.

"The ER has been extremely busy," he said.

Kennewick General Hospital also has seen a spike in the number of people visiting its ER.

Hospital spokeswoman Tamie Bradbury said the hospital has seen about 80 to 90 people more in the first five days of October than usual.

KGH is seeing an average of 52 patients per day with flulike symptoms, or a total of 261 from Oct. 1 through 5, she said. Of those 261, only three have been admitted to the hospital.

Although many people come to the hospitals wanting to know if they or their families are sick with swine flu, there's no practical difference between swine flu and the common flu strains that circulate every year.

The symptoms and treatment are the same for both, even though swine flu seems to affect different groups of people than the usual flu strains, Jecha said.

And only limited numbers of people are being tested -- those who have been hospitalized, or pregnant mothers who are sick.

That's because the purpose of testing is not to make a diagnosis for treatment, but to track the progression of the disease, Jecha said.

Initially, public health officials wanted to know if swine flu was here. Now they're watching for the development of resistant strains, he said.

w Michelle Dupler: 582-1543; mdupler@tricityherald.com

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Wednesday, Oct. 07, 2009

Officials urge those sick with flu to stay home

By Michelle Dupler, Herald staff writer