THE FLU

By Trevor Shewfelt, Pharmacist at the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy

We now have most of the articles published in the Parkland Shopper on our Website http://www.dcp.ca/

The information in this article is intended as a helpful guide only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice. If you have any questions about your medications and what is right for you see your doctor, pharmacist or other health care professional.

I watch way too much television. I was watching a bit on the History Channel about Venice, Italy. During the Bubonic Plague outbreak in Europe in the 1600’s, Venice had an effective, if brutal, infection control program. You see as the Plague was killing a quarter of the population of Europe, the people of Venice just shipped their sick to an island. Anyone in Venice who had any plague symptoms was stuck on this one island to die. The infection rate in Venice stayed lower than other parts of Europe.

Despite the high media interest, I don’t think we should ship all Manitoba flu cases to Hecla Island. The media interest sure is intense, though. Last week my mom emailed me because the news said Dauphin had confirmed H1N1 flu cases. Then my sister-in-law called my wife because she thought the news said Dauphin had closed and quarantined its schools. Last week neither of these things were true. The only thing that seems to spread faster than the flu is bad news about the flu.

I don’t want to minimize the seriousness of H1N1. At the time of writing we had nearly 300 confirmed cases and we have had our first two deaths. However, the experts are still talking about only 1 in 1000 people who get H1N1 will get serious symptoms. Let’s look at the H1N1 timeline. The H1N1 virus seems to have sprouted up in Mexico in April 2009. Then it spread to the US and Canada. And shortly thereafter through the miracle of airplane travel it went around the world. The World Health Organization has a really interesting website that you can follow the world wide spread day by day. http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/

On June 6, 2009 the WHO decided H1N1 had reached a Pandemic level six. That is the WHO’s highest pandemic level. The declaration marks the first pandemic call since 1968, when the Hong Kong flu killed about one million people. Although Pandemic sounds dramatic, it means the virus spreads easily between people in two or more areas of the world. It really doesn’t say anything about how severe the illness is once someone contracts it. Although the over 28,000 cases of swine flu worldwide and the about 150 deaths sounds scary and any illness or death of someone close to you is traumatic, it is important to keep the numbers in perspective. Regular seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide per year.

So what can you do to protect yourself and your family?
-Keep your immune system healthy. Eat health foods, get regular, moderate exercise and get enough sleep. If you let yourself get run down, you are more likely to get the flu.
-Cough or sneeze into your elbow or a tissue. If you cough on your hand, and then touch someone, you can pass on the virus.
-Wash you hands often, especially after you cough or sneeze. You still have to use soap and water if you can see dirt on your hands. The alcohol-based hand cleaners are fine in between soap hand washings to kill germs, but they don’t remove dirt.

What do should you do if you get the flu?
-Stay home from work or school. Try to limit the number of people you come in contact with.
-Wash your hands often.
-Remember you may be contagious for up to a week.
-If you are having trouble breathing, go to the hospital.

On the good news side last week the pharmaceutical company Novartis announced they had an H1N1 vaccine ready for human testing. They plan to have it ready for use in the fall.

For more information:
Manitoba Health
http://www.gov.mb.ca/flu/index.html
World Health Organization (WHO)
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/

As always if you have any questions or concerns about these or other products, ask your pharmacist.