Apr 28, 2009

Swine flu

No, you can't get it from eating pork.
My office has had a few calls on the swine flu, but not as many as we expected. I haven't had anyone coming in to get tested for it, but maybe soon. We have a few "suspected" cases in the county, but none confirmed.
As of now, if I see a patient with respiratory illness suggestive of flu (fever, cough, runny nose, body aches), my responsibility is to first run an in-office flu test. If the test returns positive for influenza, Type A, I can then treat with an anti-viral and send a culture to the health dept to evaluate for swine flu. I am not scared or worried at this point. I save that sort of drama for when it's actually appropriate. Hopefully all of the hype will be over in another couple weeks...

3 comments:

Patty Ann said...

I recall the drama over the avian flu which turned out to be nothing. It's a pity that the Mexican tourism industry will suffer, they're hard working people there.

Unknown said...

It's getting the best hype since SARS. Darn shame it doesn't have as great of a name.

Unknown said...

this is a cute joke about swine flu :) http://www.xkcd.com/574/