NC Healthcare Coverage Blog

First of all, if you are feeling sick, don’t panic, call 911 or go to the emergency room. Most of the time, the flu can be treated easily at home. So, how do you even know if you have the swine flu or just a little bug? You can go to the doctor and get a lab test to be sure, but health officials are saying that if you have flu like symptoms, that you should stay home until you have not had a fever for at least 24 hours. Some symptoms of the H1N1 flu are a fever from 99 to 104 degrees lasting from 3 to as many as 8 days, cough, aching muscles, headache, joint aches, eye pain, cold or shaking chills, feeling fatigued, sore throat, and runny or stuffy nose.

If you believe that you need medical treatment, call your doctor’s office first. Your doctor may want to talk to you and suggest treatments or call something in to the pharmacy  instead of you coming into the office and infecting other people. If he thinks you need to come in, wear a mask and let the staff know right away that you have flu-like symptoms so that you can be seated away from other patients.

If you are an adult and have confusion, difficulty breathing, severe headache that doesn’t improve with Tylenol or ibuprofen, chest pain, fainting or continuous vomiting or diarrhea, you should seek treatment. Seek medical help for children if they show signs of fast or difficult breathing, bluish skin color, not drinking enough fluids, not waking up or interacting with people as usual, very irritable behavior and not wanting to be held, a worsening fever and cough and a fever with a rash. Keep the infected person away from others for at least 7 days after person showed symptoms. If the sick person must move around, they should wear a mask. The sick person and everyone else in the house should not travel on airplanes, buses, go to school, church, work or other public places for at least 7 days after symptoms began. PLEASE STAY HOME !!

Usually the flu can be treated right at home. Do not take antibiotics! Because it is caused by a virus, it will not respond to antibiotics. Instead, take Tylenol or ibuprofen (Advil or Motrin) as directed for fevers, headache and general body aches. Make sure to drink plenty of fluids so that you stay hydrated. This is extremely important if you have diarrhea, vomiting or a high fever.

It is also important that good hygiene be practiced in the household of the sick person. Everyone, including the sick person, needs to wash their hands very often with soap and warm water. It can not be stressed enough that this is the best way to kill the germs. Alcohol hand sanitizer can be used in between hand washing. Make sure no one shares drinking glasses, eating utensils, washcloths, towels, beds, etc. This is a good rule to follow even when there is no one sick. Coughs and sneezes should be done where the elbow bends or in a tissue. Throw the tissue away immediately. Use tissues for runny noses, and dispose of them right away. Keeping your hands out of your eyes, nose and mouth is also a must to prevent germs from entering your body and make sure you constantly remind children of this, because they tend to have a hard time keeping their little hands out of these areas.

If you have heard of the “incubation period” but are not sure exactly what this is, it is the time period from exposure to the virus to the moment you first start to notice symptoms for the H1N1 flu. According to the World Health Organization, it is usually around 2 to 4 days.

So who should get the vaccine? Once it becomes available in October, it is suggested for people who are at the most risk for getting seriously ill, to be first in line. This includes pregnant women, children from 6 months old to teenagers and young adults. Other people who should be vaccinated are those who have a chronic medical condition like emphysema, diabetes, or care-givers for children under 6 months, health care workers in direct contact with patients and emergency responders.

Unlike with the seasonal flu, senior citizens are not on the first list to get the H1N1 vaccine. They seem to be less vulnerable because of exposure to similar viruses in previous years.