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Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness: Walking Pneumonia

A

alert

Senior Moderator
This is a very vague article, but undiagnosed illnesses in developed areas always catch an alarm. This sounds like it might be Pandemic H1N1.

http://www.kimt.com/content/localne...untary-Quarantine/gbM5eTlwI0yi6rkI0lnsUQ.cspx

Illness Prompts Voluntary Quarantine

Last Update: 9:19 am

Print Story | Share this Story

DUNCAN, IA--The administrator of care facility just West of Garner says they are being proactive and are under a voluntary quarantine as of Thursday afternoon.

What's being described as a handful of people have become ill over the past few days at the Duncan Heights Care Facility in Duncan

They are being cared for at 2 unidentified hospitals.

Administrator Karen Duregger is not offering any details about their symptoms.

She said testing is inconclusive about what the illness is.

As a precaution, the residential care facility is not allowing visitors in to see the nearly 50 people who live there and they cannot leave.

The facility's 30 staff members are being allowed to come and go.
Duregger is hoping the quarantine can be lifted in a matter of days.
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

This could be anything. We should keep watching but, since the care providers are not being quarantined it may be a more common gastrointestinal problem.
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Having read now a zillion articles about how clueless, uninformed, news-free health officials have not been able to diagnose pandemic flu, I look at this particular article with nothing close to concern. There are many parts of North America that are less sophisticated than Namibia when faced with pandemic flu.

School nurses, heads of health care institutions, and public health officials who think that students/patients with pandemic flu must have an elevated temperature, that vomiting and loose bowels mean a stomach flu not related to pandemic flu, that sore throats are probably strep throat disgust me. My daughter put together a pandemic plan for the hospital in which she works but as it turns out, the CEO never read it. Now that he has lots of infections and many staff people out, he realizes he should have read the plan.

If ones career is as a school nurse, the head of a hospital or nursing facility or local public health official and you don't know the ins and outs of pandemic flu, you should be fired. To be clueless and ignorant in a pandemic is a firing offense. It seems to me that there is an elevated level of unemployment in North America. Maybe some of these clueless can be replaced by intelligent and informed people.

There, I've said it. Unfortunatelty, the dangerous clueless bureacrats that cost human lives are safe from honest appraisal.
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Dark Horse said:
.......If ones career is as a school nurse, the head of a hospital or nursing facility or local public health official and you don't know the ins and outs of pandemic flu, you should be fired. To be clueless and ignorant in a pandemic is a firing offense. It seems to me that there is an elevated level of unemployment in North America. Maybe some of these clueless can be replaced by intelligent and informed people.

There, I've said it. Unfortunatelty, the dangerous clueless bureacrats that cost human lives are safe from honest appraisal.
Click to expand...

All that justified anger needs a productive outlet.

I would suggest....(that's right - nothing is working :().

If you could find a way to turn the truth into a highly profitable business which would enrich Wall Street, the message would get out. :rolleyes:

.
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Few details released on illness at Duncan Heights
GARNER ? State health officials are giving few details about the illness that has sickened several residents at the Duncan Heights care facility.

Hancock County Public Health Services, according to a news release this afternoon, ?continues to work with Duncan Heights, the Iowa Department of Public Health and the University Hygienic Lab to determine the exact cause? of the illness.

News of the illness first circulated on Thursday.

No information about symptoms experienced by the residents was released.

Another announcement will be made once more information is available, officials said.

According to IDPH Medical Director and State Epidemiologist Patricia Quinlisk, ?we have been working closed with the Hancock County Public Health Services and appreciate their quick and cooperative efforts to assure the safety of their community.?
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Update On Duncan Heights Illness
Hancock County Public Health Services continues to work with Duncan Heights, located 5 miles west of Garner on Hwy. 18, the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the University Hygienic Lab to determine the exact cause of an illness that has affected several residents of the facility.

According to IDPH Medical Director and State Epidemiologist, Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, ?We have been working closely with the Hancock County Public Health Services and appreciate their quick and cooperative efforts to assure the safety of their community.?

Another announcement will be made once more information is available.
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness results in hospitalizations, quarantines

Mysterious Illness is Walking Pneumonia

DUNCAN, IA--The Hancock County Health Department is offering an update on a mysterious illness at a care center.

The Iowa Department of Public Health and the University Hygienic Lab has determined the cause of the ailment afflicting several people at Duncan Heights Care Facility

Testing performed at UHL indicates mycoplasma pneumonia, commonly known as "walking pneumonia" is the cause of the illness.

Hancock County is also offering an update on the number of people affected.

Health officials said 7 people got ill and are recovering.

"Duncan Heights took appropriate action when residents became ill," said Betty Mallen, Hancock County Public Health Services Planner, "To prevent the further spread of illness, the facility has initiated increased disinfecting and a voluntary quarantine."

There is no word about whether Duncan Heights quarantine will continue.

Mallen is hoping that visitors to Duncan Heights, or those who may have sought medical care at the same time as those who were ill, may be aware that they should seek medical attention if they develop symptoms of walking pneumonia.

Those symptoms include a dry cough, extreme tiredness, and headache. A fever may also be present.

Walking pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics to resolve the illness and stop its spread.

Mallen said Duncan Heights experience offers a good reminder to follow a few common steps that keep illness from spreading:

1. Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with warm water and soap
2. Stay home when you are sick and until you are fever free for 24 hours
3. Cover your cough
4. Get plenty of rest
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness: Walking Pneumonia

Google Health:
https://www.google.com/health/ref/Atypical+pneumonia

Atypical pneumonia refers to pneumonia caused by certain bacteria, including Legionella pneumophila, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Chlamydophila pneumoniae.

* Chills
* Confusion (especially with Legionella pneumonia)
* Cough
* Diarrhea (especially with Legionella pneumonia)
* Fever
* General ill feeling
* Headache
* Loss of appetite
* Muscle stiffness and aching
* Rapid breathing
* Rash (especially with Mycoplasma pneumonia)
* Shortness of breath

Atypical pneumonia due to mycoplasma and chlamydophila bacteria usually cause mild forms of pneumonia, unlike other types of the disease that can come on more quickly with more severe early symptoms.

Mycoplasma pneumonia often affects younger people and may be associated with anemia, certain types of rashes, and neurological conditions such as meningitis, myelitis, and encephalitis. For more information on this type of pneumonia, see: Mycoplasma pneumonia
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness: Walking Pneumonia

Several years ago, both of my sons came down with Mycoplasma Pneumonia. They were teenagers.
The first got sick rapidly (sore red throat and respiratory) and become so sick that I took him to an ER. They gave him the wrong antibiotic and by evening he had spiked a temp of 105.F
Back to the ER, finally got the right antibiotic. They refused to admit him. Told me he could get better nursing care at home. I was up all night doing sponge baths and pushing fluids. He was out of school 2 weeks. Extremely weak.
3 days later my other boy started with a 103 temp. I knew which antibiotic to have my Dr. prescribe right away.

Please take this illness very seriously.
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness: Walking Pneumonia

That's scary - is this something that could be mistaken for H1N1 and therefore not tested?
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness: Walking Pneumonia

Possibly. Both of my boys were members of high school swim team. Several other team members came down with it too.
I bet if it had happened today, H1N1 would be their first guess at the ER.
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness: Walking Pneumonia

After re-reading that first article, I'm sure H1N1 was the first guess of the doctors, and the reason for the quarantines.
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness: Walking Pneumonia

Wow maybe that is what I had.....was sick a long time..still not great......I originally got sick 3 weeks after my mom and brother. Now 6 weeks later my brother is sick again. I still have a rash on my face. I read that amoxicillin will make walking pneumonia (the mycoplasma pneu.) rash worse---and they put me on that...Hmmm....
 
Re: Duncan, Iowa: Mystery Illness: Walking Pneumonia

Oh! Forgot to say we live in Iowa-tho I know you can get it anywhere...
 
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