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Healthy or not, teens at risk of swine flu
Reported by: Jennifer Hale, Reporter
Contributor: Donny Pearce, Photographer
Last Update: 5:34 pm
Taylor Brian, a Denham Springs teenager, was the state's fourth death from swine flu. (WAFB) New Orleans - The parents of a Baton Rouge teen who died from swine flu say their daughter was a healthy 19- year-old with no medical problems before she caught swine flu, then pneumonia.
Now, teens and young adults across the area are wondering if they are doing enough to protect themselves.
In the weeks before Taylor Brian's death, her doctor tested her for the flu several times. Every test came back negative. A final test eventually confirmed Taylor had swine flu, but it was too late for anti-viral drugs, like Tamiflu.
She died just days after the positive test.
Brian's friends and family attended her visitation Tuesday night. Her funeral is Wednesday morning.
The news that a healthy teen died from swine flu so quickly concerns students across Tulane's campus.
"I don't know what to do. I feel like everyone is freaking out about it, and we don't really know how to protect ourselves. We do what we can and then something like that happens so I'm a little worried, yeah," says Lucy Wardlaw, a Tulane graduate student.
Many Tulane students report both they and the school are doing everything they can to guard against swine flu.
?Hand sanitizer everywhere. They've got it in every room around here. So I'm using that a lot and trying to stay healthy, says Cort Woodruff, a Tulane freshman.
Right now, the Department of Health and Hospitals estimates 39,000 Louisiana residents have swine flu, but medical professionals are warning people not to panic. They say cases like Taylor Brian's are the exception.
What you should do, according to Doctor Jullette Saussy, aggressively wash your hands and use hand sanitizer. She also recommends avoiding personal contact.
"Hand shaking, hugging, all the things we do in the South, we probably should lessen doing that now because that's the way the virus is being spread," says Saussy.
If you have all of these flu-like symptoms at the same time - fever above 100.4 degrees, chills, body aches, sore throat, head ache - Saussy says isolate yourself to protect others.
If you have to go into a shared space, like a drug store, always wear a mask.
?While a mask is not fashionable, it is necessary," she says.
To best help yourself recover, don?t wait to talk to your doctor:
?I would recommend everyone make contact with their primary care doctor, and then they'll have to evaluate and decide how they're going to treat influenza like symptoms,? says Saussy.
Health experts say anti-viral prescription drugs like Tamiflu will only work if taken within the first 24-48 hours of infection. Talking to your doctor as soon as you start having flu like symptoms is key, although not everyone with swine flu will need drugs like Tamiflu to recover.
Another critical step in controlling this swine flu outbreak, clean surfaces: keyboards, community phones, table tops, door knobs. Swine flu germs can live on those items hours after an infected person touches them.
New data from DHH confirms the swine flu is hitting school age children and young adults the hardest.
Eleven percent of swine flu patients are four or younger. The largest percentage is children or young adults - 70% are between five and 24. Just one percent is 65 or older.
Reported by: Jennifer Hale, Reporter
Contributor: Donny Pearce, Photographer
Last Update: 5:34 pm
Taylor Brian, a Denham Springs teenager, was the state's fourth death from swine flu. (WAFB) New Orleans - The parents of a Baton Rouge teen who died from swine flu say their daughter was a healthy 19- year-old with no medical problems before she caught swine flu, then pneumonia.
Now, teens and young adults across the area are wondering if they are doing enough to protect themselves.
In the weeks before Taylor Brian's death, her doctor tested her for the flu several times. Every test came back negative. A final test eventually confirmed Taylor had swine flu, but it was too late for anti-viral drugs, like Tamiflu.
She died just days after the positive test.
Brian's friends and family attended her visitation Tuesday night. Her funeral is Wednesday morning.
The news that a healthy teen died from swine flu so quickly concerns students across Tulane's campus.
"I don't know what to do. I feel like everyone is freaking out about it, and we don't really know how to protect ourselves. We do what we can and then something like that happens so I'm a little worried, yeah," says Lucy Wardlaw, a Tulane graduate student.
Many Tulane students report both they and the school are doing everything they can to guard against swine flu.
?Hand sanitizer everywhere. They've got it in every room around here. So I'm using that a lot and trying to stay healthy, says Cort Woodruff, a Tulane freshman.
Right now, the Department of Health and Hospitals estimates 39,000 Louisiana residents have swine flu, but medical professionals are warning people not to panic. They say cases like Taylor Brian's are the exception.
What you should do, according to Doctor Jullette Saussy, aggressively wash your hands and use hand sanitizer. She also recommends avoiding personal contact.
"Hand shaking, hugging, all the things we do in the South, we probably should lessen doing that now because that's the way the virus is being spread," says Saussy.
If you have all of these flu-like symptoms at the same time - fever above 100.4 degrees, chills, body aches, sore throat, head ache - Saussy says isolate yourself to protect others.
If you have to go into a shared space, like a drug store, always wear a mask.
?While a mask is not fashionable, it is necessary," she says.
To best help yourself recover, don?t wait to talk to your doctor:
?I would recommend everyone make contact with their primary care doctor, and then they'll have to evaluate and decide how they're going to treat influenza like symptoms,? says Saussy.
Health experts say anti-viral prescription drugs like Tamiflu will only work if taken within the first 24-48 hours of infection. Talking to your doctor as soon as you start having flu like symptoms is key, although not everyone with swine flu will need drugs like Tamiflu to recover.
Another critical step in controlling this swine flu outbreak, clean surfaces: keyboards, community phones, table tops, door knobs. Swine flu germs can live on those items hours after an infected person touches them.
New data from DHH confirms the swine flu is hitting school age children and young adults the hardest.
Eleven percent of swine flu patients are four or younger. The largest percentage is children or young adults - 70% are between five and 24. Just one percent is 65 or older.
