Symptoms, shots fill up area clinics

[wdcare]

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/1253179010139310.xml&coll=1
Symptoms, shots fill up area clinics
Thursday, September 17, 2009
By Lee Roopand Challen Stephens

*snip*
Unacceptable or not, the Oakwood student - and the clinic - are caught in a strained delivery system trying to cope with both seasonal influenza and swine flu. "Bursts" of intense public concern, in one expert's words, are translating into lines, vaccine shortages and improvised isolation units like the student encountered.
Anu Arun, office manager at the University Walk-In Family Care on Wynn Drive, said her clinic has only one isolation room. Signs warn anyone with flu symptoms not to enter the small building, but to wait out back or in their cars.
"Everyone has been understanding," said Arun, who said the walk-in clinic conducts tests for flu and refers likely cases of H1N1 to Huntsville Hospital.

*snip*
People were understanding, too, near Meridianville, where 600 lined up Wednesday for free seasonal flu shots administered by the Madison County Health Department...

 

[wdcare]

Re: Symptoms, shots fill up area clinics

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/09/swine_flu_socks_pediatricians.html

Swine Flu socks Birmingham pediatricians' offices

Waiting rooms at pediatricians? offices across the Birmingham area have been jammed for weeks with kids sickened by swine flu.

Doctors say they are seeing record numbers of children ill with influenza-like illnesses, more than at the peak of regular flu season during the winter. The surge began shortly after children returned to school in early August.

?We knew that this was going to be different when we were diagnosing flu cases back in June,? said Dr. Ryan Walley, a physician at Redmont Pediatrics. ?We?ve never seen anything like this.?

As of last week, 632 schools in the state had absentee rates of 5 percent or greater, unusual for this time of year. Of those, 76 schools had absentee rates of 10 to 15 percent and nine had rates of 15 to 20 percent, according to data from the Alabama Department of Education.

Some doctors have advised parents to put off well-child and well-baby visits until the illness subsides. Others are getting well patients in for checkups first thing in the morning and letting them exit by back and side doors to minimize exposure to the new H1N1 virus. Most pediatricians have extended their hours and are working through lunch.


Healthy Kids of Gardendale in late August told parents of newborns not to bring their babies into the office for checkups. Because most of the illness they have seen from the swine flu virus has been mild, the practice has resumed those office visits but is opening 15 to 20 minutes earlier in the morning to get those children into exam rooms before sick children arrive. Then families leave one at a time by the back door.

?We?re trying to send everybody out through the back door so that nobody has to traipse through the waiting room,? said Dr. Patricia Harris, owner of the Gardendale practice. ?We do ask them to be careful and to try not to touch anything on their way out. ...

*snip*
Walley said he has seen a few cases of seasonal flu but almost all influenza cases he is treating are swine flu. Walley said he expects the swine flu outbreak to lessen in the coming weeks, only to be replaced by seasonal influenza and perhaps the return of the H1N1 virus in late winter or early spring...