Seeing a lot of Flu symptoms, or is it just media hype..??

It seems that everyone and their mother is coming into the ED I work at with the slightest sign of "flu-like" symptoms. Lots of anxious parents bringing in their children.

Nevertheless, I don't doubt how serious this is. There is a story in the local newspaper today about a young woman in Canon City, with no underlying health conditions, now fighting for her life in the ICU at a hospital in Colorado Springs. I don't blame people for erring on the side of caution.

Common sense is decidedly uncommon! I don't blame any of the parents bringing their kids in -- the news is scary because they focus on these otherwise healthy kids who have died from the flu, or complications from the flu. But we're also seeing people who bring their kids in because they sneezed, or have a little sniffle -- no cough, no fever. One literally had 15 minutes (yes, minutes) of symptoms -- the mother brought her kid "straight over from Walmart!!!" with 15 minutes of sniffles. There is a lot of information out there for people to process, that's for sure.

Loralai, your point about media hype is a good one, and I think that was part of OP's post as well. The media noise needs to stop, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.

Apparently, when I wasn't looking, I suddenly got old enough to be nostalgic for the days when treatment of the mostly mild to moderate s/s we've discussed here was considered to be within the realm of common sense.

Slightly OT, but I saw a TV ad for a retail pharmacy urgent care clinic yesterday -- the story line of the ad was a mom with a kid shown with various mild s/s - sore throat, cough, boo boo, etc. The repeating tag line was "Be Reassured." I just shook my head at the continued dumbing down and advertising saturation of our culture. Whatever you do -- don't trust your instincts with your kid's minor boo boo -- go to the clinic, either pay out of pocket or run up a bill for your insurance company (or both). Don't even think about just washing off the boo boo, giving your kid a hug and a popsicle and going on with the day!

And whatever you do, don't treat your kids' fevers, we in the ED don't trust your thermometer skills and want to SEE that 104 degrees! /sarcasm

We're seeing 10-15 flu-like sxs/day--again mostly the peds, young adult crowd
If they meet the symptomology criteria, we're not even testing anymore--just 'assuming' it's flu

The high risk group get the nasal washings but in all honesty, I've heard that this test has a high false neg result, so, if the patient is high risk, they get Tamiflu scripts

Have you guys gotten the h1n1 flu shot yet? It hasn't been available here yet.

I have to add that I get frustrated at times at the amount of people who come in to get tested--they're not that sick, they have low grade fever, sl URI sxs. I know I shouldn't get frustrated because they're worried about flu, but the amount is just killing our ED.

Any of your EDs developed an off-site flu triage area to funnel the flu group out of your waiting room?

Our hospital system can't seem to get its act together to provide H1N1 vaccination -- and we are the "Tier 1" employees that they want to vaccinate first! They received only 200 doses of injectible vaccine, and 8000 of the LAIV nasal. The problem is that we can't work for a couple of days after having the LAIV, so they were holding off on giving it. Makes no sense -- there are a lot of people like me who work three days on, four days off. But I have yet to be vaccinated! My coworkers and I are wondering if it's worth it at this point, given our rates of exposure already. I did get my seasonal flu shot already, but not the H1N1.

There has been talk of setting up a "flu tent" over at the peds ED, where they are being hit the hardest. I'm in a freestanding ED that is a distance away but part of the hospital system, and so far we're managing without doing a separate area for flu.

50-60 cases in ER daily in a 140 bed hospital seems like a lot of flu to me, regardless of media. Yet I still talk to people who think of it as "just the flu".

I think the CDC has failed miserably in educating the public in the differences between regular flu and H1N1.

Normally, I don't freak out when my child is sick...she recently fell ill on a Friday and as a precaution, I went ahead and took her to the Ped.

She knew I was a nurse and we talked about the H1N1 and I said, "How in the world can you diagnose it by symptoms if it's supposed to be the same?"

That is when she said, "Oh, the symptoms ARE NOT the same. H1N1 has a very, very high fever that goes on for days."

I said, "How high of a fever?"

She said, "104, 105 high".

I'm a nurse and I have NEVER heard this...but sure enough, she was right.

So why are they not telling this to the general public??????

The influx seems to have ebbed for the time being. I only had a few ILIs over the weekend. I'm sure it will pick up again when the seasonal flu starts to hit.

I think our local media has done a pretty good job of informing the public about the need to stay home unless symptoms are severe, but there will always be that certain population that brings their kid to the ED instead of Urgent Care for the slightest little owies.