By Lisa ZahnerINDIAN RIVER COUNTY — As first reported in our sister publication, Vero Beach 32963, the Indian River Medical Center, whose emergency room would bear the brunt of a Swine Flu pandemic, has set up an H1N1 Task Force and has begun stockpiling Tamiflu in the event that the County sees a spike in swine flu cases in the late summer or early fall.
While the typical seasonal flu preys on the very young and very old, the H1N1 swine flu has been showing up among young, otherwise healthy people.The first influenza pandemic in 41 years has spread rapidly during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter over the past few months, and U.S. health officials say a new round could hit the U.S. within weeks, dovetailing with the start of school.The Indian River County School District is planning with health officials, law enforcement and first responders about isolation and possible security concerns in case infections reach a critical level and school closings are considered. Outbreaks at local summer camps, local Boys and Girls Clubs and the young inmate population at the County jail were kept in check through early testing and isolation. But since physicians are now using rapid-tests which detect influenza A and treating patients on the presumption of swine flu, H1N1 is impossible to track in our county, but estimated by the Health Department to be as widespread as the height of the typical winter flu season.
Patricia Gould, manager of infection control and employee health at Indian River Medical Center, said the hospital’s H1N1 Task force is focusing preparations on procurement, distribution and storage of supplies, environmental and security planning, laboratory services, staffing of nurses and physicians, pharmacy, the emergency department and vaccine administration, but hopes patients don’t end up in the emergency room.
“Of course we’ll be encouraging people to go visit their doctor’s office,” she said. “It’s important to get treated in the first 48 hours for swine flu.”
Since flu patients, if admitted, will be dispersed throughout the hospital, just about every member of the hospital staff, from custodians to doctors, would potentially be exposed.
The hospital has posted warning against visiting patients if you are sick and is offering hand sanitizer to visitors and, if necessary, masks. Sebastian River Medical Center is also tracking all communications, recommendations and procedures handed down from the CDC. SRMC immunology and infection control specialists are in constant contact with the Health Department.
Gould said IRMC will make every effort to make sure that flu patients will not delay care to or put at risk patients in the ER for injuries, heart attacks, strokes or other reasons.
“We’re planning to intake people separately and isolate them if someone presents with a fever and other flu symptoms,” Gould said. “If it becomes a pandemic, we will move the intake of those patients to a location outside of the building.”
The hospital will track the numbers of possible cases coming into the emergency room and cases of employees out sick with the flu, and Gould said the staff would employ the rapid influenza A test to begin treatment early with Tamiflu, as it is probably the most effective medication used in combatting the swine flu and the soonest there will be a vaccine is mid to late October.
“The Health Department will be setting up areas in the county to be vaccination sites,” Gould said. “There will be two shots required, given 28 days apart and the first one can be given on the same day as the seasonal flu shot.”
The Visiting Nurse Association has ordered 15,000 doses of seasonal flu vaccine and hopes to begin administering them September 29
“We’re hearing people saying that they’ll just wait until the H1N1 vaccine comes out and they’ll get that one,” said Michael Gardner, director of communications for the Visiting Nurse Association. “It’s really important to get the message out that the H1N1 vaccine will not protect you from the seasonal flu, and the seasonal flu vaccine will not protect you from the H1N1 virus.
Authorities are cautioning residents not to underestimate the dangers of the seasonal flu, which kills 34,000 people per year in the United States.
“So people should get their seasonal flu shot as soon as possible when they come out and then, if and when the H1N1 vaccine is available, get that one also,” Gardner said.
