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Swine flu concerns keep Children's ER busy
12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, September 24, 2009
By SHERRY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
sjacobson@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News
s Karel Holloway, Jessica Meyers and Matt Peterson contributed to this report.
Panicky parents and their sick children overflowed the emergency room Wednesday at Children's Medical Center Dallas, seeking tests and treatments for swine flu.
It had the look of an emerging disaster.
Virtually everyone was wearing a face mask, even some of the tiniest babies. The hours-long waits were punctuated by crying youngsters and visits to the hand sanitizer. Some families juggled more than one lethargic child.
"This is quite extraordinary," said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, chief of pediatric infectious diseases. "We've never seen this type of activity this early in the [flu] season."
Health officials aren't sure if the swine flu, or H1N1, outbreak is beginning to skyrocket in Dallas or if parents are merely overreacting to symptoms that may not be the flu.
"It's always difficult to determine if there's a lot of disease out there or just a lot of concern," said Kahn, who also is a professor of pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Children's declined to say how many patients have sought flu treatments recently. However, 60 children were sick enough with the flu to be admitted to the hospital in the past two weeks, officials said.
To handle the onslaught of patients, the hospital's emergency department set up separate waiting and treatment areas for children with flu symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat and body aches.
So far, the severity of swine flu appears to be no greater than the seasonal flu, Kahn said. "What's atypical is the time of year and the magnitude of children we're seeing here."
Nationally and locally, the flu outbreak appears to be hitting hardest among those ages 5 to 24. Most do not suffer serious symptoms, and they recover within a week or so.
"This is a relatively mild disease," Kahn noted. "That's not to say the kids aren't sick, just not sick enough to be admitted."
Children's Medical Center has implemented visitation restrictions to protect its hospitalized patients from contracting the flu. The rules call for screening all hospital visitors for flulike symptoms and turning away those who appear sick, for banning visitors under 12 from all patient areas and for limiting visits to two adults per patient.
Since August, four deaths in Dallas County have been associated with swine flu. A 3-year-old girl who died last Thursday had underlying health problems while an 11-year-old girl who died the preceding week did not.
The Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services, which is tracking the local flu outbreak, reported a 17 percent increase in positive flu tests for the week ending Sept. 12. More current numbers were not available Wednesday.
School districts
Reports from school districts in the Dallas area also suggested that the flu outbreak might be making an upswing.
Absences in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district this week swelled to 1,600, an increase of 60 percent from last week. However, only 1 in 12 was attributed to flu, said Terri Lyons, the district's nurse manager.
At least five Frisco schools have sent letters home to parents warning of an increase in "flu like" symptoms. District officials asked schools to send such notes when at least 10 percent of students were absent due to the flu.
Allen ISD has seen three schools drop below 90 percent attendance in the past two weeks.
And Garland has seen a rising number of students absent this week with flu symptoms, health services director Maggie Willis said Wednesday.
"It's like a little wave," she said. "The numbers go up for a few days and then go back down."
As the flu cases grow, so does the demand for the new flu vaccine.
It won't be distributed around the nation until mid-October. Like other flu shots, it will take two weeks to become effective enough to protect someone against the flu.
Unless the vaccine comes earlier, it won't provide much protection before November, and not everyone will get it right away.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has specified that chronically ill children and adults, particularly those with suppressed immune systems, will be among the first to receive the vaccine, along with pregnant women, health care and emergency medical services personnel, and caretakers of children under 6 months old. Eventually, people between the ages of 6 months and 64 years old will get shots.
A shortage of the new flu vaccine is not expected, according to the CDC, although it is not clear how long it will take for the vaccine to become widely available.
Flu shot info
In Texas, about 11,000 physicians, clinics and health departments are seeking the shots, particularly for their patients at highest risk for severe complications from the flu.
Slightly more than 1,000 medical providers have signed up in Dallas County, said Doug McBride, spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
It's not yet known how many doses are being requested statewide or even locally, McBride said, but the state expects to receive its first shipment of 3.4 million shots by mid-October.
Overall, 14.8 million doses of the new vaccine will be sent to Texas by the end of flu season.
The vaccinations will be free, although doctors and clinics can charge administrative fees, such as $21.03 per shot in Dallas County.
That amount was determined by Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.
12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, September 24, 2009
By SHERRY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
sjacobson@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News
s Karel Holloway, Jessica Meyers and Matt Peterson contributed to this report.
Panicky parents and their sick children overflowed the emergency room Wednesday at Children's Medical Center Dallas, seeking tests and treatments for swine flu.
It had the look of an emerging disaster.
Virtually everyone was wearing a face mask, even some of the tiniest babies. The hours-long waits were punctuated by crying youngsters and visits to the hand sanitizer. Some families juggled more than one lethargic child.
"This is quite extraordinary," said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, chief of pediatric infectious diseases. "We've never seen this type of activity this early in the [flu] season."
Health officials aren't sure if the swine flu, or H1N1, outbreak is beginning to skyrocket in Dallas or if parents are merely overreacting to symptoms that may not be the flu.
"It's always difficult to determine if there's a lot of disease out there or just a lot of concern," said Kahn, who also is a professor of pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Children's declined to say how many patients have sought flu treatments recently. However, 60 children were sick enough with the flu to be admitted to the hospital in the past two weeks, officials said.
To handle the onslaught of patients, the hospital's emergency department set up separate waiting and treatment areas for children with flu symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat and body aches.
So far, the severity of swine flu appears to be no greater than the seasonal flu, Kahn said. "What's atypical is the time of year and the magnitude of children we're seeing here."
Nationally and locally, the flu outbreak appears to be hitting hardest among those ages 5 to 24. Most do not suffer serious symptoms, and they recover within a week or so.
"This is a relatively mild disease," Kahn noted. "That's not to say the kids aren't sick, just not sick enough to be admitted."
Children's Medical Center has implemented visitation restrictions to protect its hospitalized patients from contracting the flu. The rules call for screening all hospital visitors for flulike symptoms and turning away those who appear sick, for banning visitors under 12 from all patient areas and for limiting visits to two adults per patient.
Since August, four deaths in Dallas County have been associated with swine flu. A 3-year-old girl who died last Thursday had underlying health problems while an 11-year-old girl who died the preceding week did not.
The Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services, which is tracking the local flu outbreak, reported a 17 percent increase in positive flu tests for the week ending Sept. 12. More current numbers were not available Wednesday.
School districts
Reports from school districts in the Dallas area also suggested that the flu outbreak might be making an upswing.
Absences in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district this week swelled to 1,600, an increase of 60 percent from last week. However, only 1 in 12 was attributed to flu, said Terri Lyons, the district's nurse manager.
At least five Frisco schools have sent letters home to parents warning of an increase in "flu like" symptoms. District officials asked schools to send such notes when at least 10 percent of students were absent due to the flu.
Allen ISD has seen three schools drop below 90 percent attendance in the past two weeks.
And Garland has seen a rising number of students absent this week with flu symptoms, health services director Maggie Willis said Wednesday.
"It's like a little wave," she said. "The numbers go up for a few days and then go back down."
As the flu cases grow, so does the demand for the new flu vaccine.
It won't be distributed around the nation until mid-October. Like other flu shots, it will take two weeks to become effective enough to protect someone against the flu.
Unless the vaccine comes earlier, it won't provide much protection before November, and not everyone will get it right away.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has specified that chronically ill children and adults, particularly those with suppressed immune systems, will be among the first to receive the vaccine, along with pregnant women, health care and emergency medical services personnel, and caretakers of children under 6 months old. Eventually, people between the ages of 6 months and 64 years old will get shots.
A shortage of the new flu vaccine is not expected, according to the CDC, although it is not clear how long it will take for the vaccine to become widely available.
Flu shot info
In Texas, about 11,000 physicians, clinics and health departments are seeking the shots, particularly for their patients at highest risk for severe complications from the flu.
Slightly more than 1,000 medical providers have signed up in Dallas County, said Doug McBride, spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
It's not yet known how many doses are being requested statewide or even locally, McBride said, but the state expects to receive its first shipment of 3.4 million shots by mid-October.
Overall, 14.8 million doses of the new vaccine will be sent to Texas by the end of flu season.
The vaccinations will be free, although doctors and clinics can charge administrative fees, such as $21.03 per shot in Dallas County.
That amount was determined by Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.
