Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6997498.html
A year later, a wary look at a killer
H1N1 outbreak taught lessons that left the area ready for future
By CINDY GEORGE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
May 9, 2010, 7:43PM
The H1N1 influenza threat that emerged a year ago killed thousands and sickened many more but didn't become the plague that some feared.
Dozens died in the Houston area, while an estimated hundreds of thousands fell ill. But people washed their hands more often and employed etiquette that cut the spread of germs. Hospitals learned how to keep the sick from infecting patients or medical providers.
A year later, what did we learn from our collective bout with H1N1?
Texas Children's Hospital became Houston's ground zero for an illness disproportionately striking youngsters. The institution made national headlines when a Mexican boy died there on April 27, 2009, becoming the first death on U.S. soil from complications of the new flu.
Taking lessons from the surge of pediatric patients following Hurricane Katrina, Texas Children's handled the unexpected crush of sick kids beginning last May by establishing an open-air triage clinic outside the hospital's emergency center. The unit ? open for a week ? had its own doctors, nurses, pharmacy and supplies to treat patients quickly while not contaminating the main ER.
?You can completely immobilize a hospital or an entire region if the capacity (of hospitals) is overwhelmed,? said Dr. Paul Sirbaugh, the Texas Children's clinical chief of emergency medicine and an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine.
Lesson learned: ?Regionalization and collaboration? among a broad group of agencies and institutions ? as during Katrina's aftermath ? are necessary to respond to widespread medical emergencies...
...A split with CDC
Glezen criticized early CDC recommendations that limited the use of Tamiflu, an antiviral drug that reduces the severity and duration of flu symptoms, and said initial efforts should have focused on children.
Lesson learned: ?If they had followed the policy of containment of treating every patient who appeared, they would have decreased the morbidity (deaths).?...
...She called shutting schoolhouse doors in H1N1's early days ?an overreaction.?
Lesson learned: ?We closed a school with just one confirmed case. ? It causes more problems than it would if we kept the schools open and dealt with the kids who were ill.?
Vaccines, absentees
Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease expert who teaches at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, said the alarm sounded by public health officials was appropriate. Absenteeism and slow-to-arrive vaccines tested pandemic flu plans for both the UT medical school in Houston and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, where Ostrosky serves as medical director for epidemiology.
Lesson learned: ?You want to have flexible leave policies because the last thing you want is somebody who is sick to come to work.?...
A year later, a wary look at a killer
H1N1 outbreak taught lessons that left the area ready for future
By CINDY GEORGE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
May 9, 2010, 7:43PM
The H1N1 influenza threat that emerged a year ago killed thousands and sickened many more but didn't become the plague that some feared.
Dozens died in the Houston area, while an estimated hundreds of thousands fell ill. But people washed their hands more often and employed etiquette that cut the spread of germs. Hospitals learned how to keep the sick from infecting patients or medical providers.
A year later, what did we learn from our collective bout with H1N1?
Texas Children's Hospital became Houston's ground zero for an illness disproportionately striking youngsters. The institution made national headlines when a Mexican boy died there on April 27, 2009, becoming the first death on U.S. soil from complications of the new flu.
Taking lessons from the surge of pediatric patients following Hurricane Katrina, Texas Children's handled the unexpected crush of sick kids beginning last May by establishing an open-air triage clinic outside the hospital's emergency center. The unit ? open for a week ? had its own doctors, nurses, pharmacy and supplies to treat patients quickly while not contaminating the main ER.
?You can completely immobilize a hospital or an entire region if the capacity (of hospitals) is overwhelmed,? said Dr. Paul Sirbaugh, the Texas Children's clinical chief of emergency medicine and an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine.
Lesson learned: ?Regionalization and collaboration? among a broad group of agencies and institutions ? as during Katrina's aftermath ? are necessary to respond to widespread medical emergencies...
...A split with CDC
Glezen criticized early CDC recommendations that limited the use of Tamiflu, an antiviral drug that reduces the severity and duration of flu symptoms, and said initial efforts should have focused on children.
Lesson learned: ?If they had followed the policy of containment of treating every patient who appeared, they would have decreased the morbidity (deaths).?...
...She called shutting schoolhouse doors in H1N1's early days ?an overreaction.?
Lesson learned: ?We closed a school with just one confirmed case. ? It causes more problems than it would if we kept the schools open and dealt with the kids who were ill.?
Vaccines, absentees
Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease expert who teaches at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, said the alarm sounded by public health officials was appropriate. Absenteeism and slow-to-arrive vaccines tested pandemic flu plans for both the UT medical school in Houston and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, where Ostrosky serves as medical director for epidemiology.
Lesson learned: ?You want to have flexible leave policies because the last thing you want is somebody who is sick to come to work.?...