Dr.
Maguire
--
Brian
J. Maguire, Dr.PH, MSA, EMT-P
Clinical
Associate Professor
CEEDR
Director
Associate
Graduate Program Director
Department
of Emergency Health Services
University
of Maryland, Baltimore County
1000
Hilltop Circle
Baltimore,
MD 21250
Office)
410/455-3778
Fax)
410/455-3045
maguire@umbc.edu
http://ehs.umbc.edu
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~maguire
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Swine Flu information
30April09
There are a number of reasonable precautions that people can take in
light of the current information we have on the Swine Flu outbreak:
- first - don't panic
- wash hands often with either soap and water or with an alcohol based
hand sanitizer
- keep about a week's supply of food and water in the house
- if you do feel sick, do not go to work or to public places where you
may infect others
- become familiar with ways that you could care for your relatives or
others in your community should they become ill
- get involved with your community's preparedness agencies now so that
you can be ready to assist in the event of a more serious outbreak
- stay as healthy as possible with a balanced diet and regular exercise
- if the situation worsens, be prepared to follow instructions from
local public health officials.
There are two more specific considerations. First, the emergcncy
department is not a good first choice for treatment. If you have a
fever and other flu symptoms such as a cough, sore throat and body
aches, contact your doctor's office. The doctor's office may be able to
call in a prescription to the pharmacy for you. Ideally, a family
member or friend will pick it up. Then stay at home and take the
medication. Of course, if you have severe symptoms such as difficulty
breathing, chest pain or persistent vomiting, then go to the hospital
emergency department.
It is unlikely that any evacuations will be ordered because in general
there are three main problems with evacuations. The first is that if
people “flee to the hills”, they may not be welcome when they get there
(there are many stories even from the not-too-distant past where
townspeople, armed with pitchforks, have literally blocked all accesses
to their towns in order to prevent potentially infected people from
entering the town). The second is that even if the towns accept
evacuees, the towns may become overwhelmed and then incapable of coping
with such a large increase in the population. The third problem with
evacuations is that they may result in more death and injury than would
have occurred if people had stayed where they were.
There are a couple of television news interviews I did on the subject
at this site
(search the site for “Brian” and “flu”): http://wjz.com/video/?id=54474@wjz.dayport.com
and here (click on Maryland students): http://www.foxbaltimore.com/template/swine_flu/videos/vid_14.shtml
Here are some other helpful links:
Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/Preparedness/SeasonalFluChecklist.pdf
CDC
http://www.cdc.gov
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/habits.htm?s_cid=swineFlu_outbreak_internal_003
World Health Organization
http://www.who.int
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html
See this page for
pandemic related literature:
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~maguire/PandemicLiterature.html
Brian
J. Maguire
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