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Updated: 6:48 PM Aug 18, 2009
Reporter: Lisa Blackwell
Health officials and schools seeing more H1N1 flu cases
Swine flu is spreading through the Wiregrass sending people to the emergency rooms and sick children home from school.
So far, 130 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Houston County that doesn't mean all of those folks reside in Houston County but they were diagnosed.
According to Flowers Hospital, 90 percent of flu cases are type A, meaning they are the most common and most serious cases. Of those 99% are diagnosed as H1N1.
Dr. David Claassen, an emergency room physician at Flowers Hospital, says ?Some people are having nausea, some vomiting, occasionally seeing people with diarrhea but the typical is fever, chills body ache, cough.?
Staffs are doing their best to keep flu cases separate from other patients.
?What we are trying to do is anyone that is coming in with flu symptoms, we're getting masks on them, and trying to have them practice respiratory hygiene where they're not coughing amongst everyone and trying to have them cover their cough with their hand or their shoulder,? says Dr. Claassen.
Educators are taking precautionary measures too. Houston County Schools have around 15 reported cases.
?Several of the ones that we thought that have come back and said it was flu have had headaches and high fever sore throat is a big one so once we've determined maybe that's what category they're falling in we've isolated them in the nurses office with us and called somebody to come pick them up,? Houston Co. Schools lead nurse Mandy Faulk.
Health officials say anyone with the flu should use products like Tylenol and Motrin to reduce fever, drink lots of fluids and stay home until 24 hours after the fever is gone.
Faulk said, ?If your child is sick, if you think your child is sick, please don't send them to school. There?s no way to contain this without everybody working together trying to minimize it.
Dothan City Schools Superintendent Dr. Sam Nichols says that their first noticeable peak in absenteeism was at Honeysuckle Middle School.
He's says so far Dothan's school system is below a ten percent infection rate.
Swine flu is infecting people from four-weeks-old to 86-years-old. Children under 18 make up nearly 66 percent of all confirmed cases.
Reporter: Lisa Blackwell
Health officials and schools seeing more H1N1 flu cases
Swine flu is spreading through the Wiregrass sending people to the emergency rooms and sick children home from school.
So far, 130 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Houston County that doesn't mean all of those folks reside in Houston County but they were diagnosed.
According to Flowers Hospital, 90 percent of flu cases are type A, meaning they are the most common and most serious cases. Of those 99% are diagnosed as H1N1.
Dr. David Claassen, an emergency room physician at Flowers Hospital, says ?Some people are having nausea, some vomiting, occasionally seeing people with diarrhea but the typical is fever, chills body ache, cough.?
Staffs are doing their best to keep flu cases separate from other patients.
?What we are trying to do is anyone that is coming in with flu symptoms, we're getting masks on them, and trying to have them practice respiratory hygiene where they're not coughing amongst everyone and trying to have them cover their cough with their hand or their shoulder,? says Dr. Claassen.
Educators are taking precautionary measures too. Houston County Schools have around 15 reported cases.
?Several of the ones that we thought that have come back and said it was flu have had headaches and high fever sore throat is a big one so once we've determined maybe that's what category they're falling in we've isolated them in the nurses office with us and called somebody to come pick them up,? Houston Co. Schools lead nurse Mandy Faulk.
Health officials say anyone with the flu should use products like Tylenol and Motrin to reduce fever, drink lots of fluids and stay home until 24 hours after the fever is gone.
Faulk said, ?If your child is sick, if you think your child is sick, please don't send them to school. There?s no way to contain this without everybody working together trying to minimize it.
Dothan City Schools Superintendent Dr. Sam Nichols says that their first noticeable peak in absenteeism was at Honeysuckle Middle School.
He's says so far Dothan's school system is below a ten percent infection rate.
Swine flu is infecting people from four-weeks-old to 86-years-old. Children under 18 make up nearly 66 percent of all confirmed cases.
