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

It seems no one has your basic "head cold" or seasonal allergies this year. Panic has certainly hit my area to the point that every booger (I work in a school so yes, booger is a medical term here!) is H1N1. We do have a few "confirmed" cases, but I'm not sure who is confirming them. Please don't confuse my skepticism for not realizing how serious this can be, but I am weary of every student who isn't feeling 100% needing to go home.

My kid's school has been hit with something...at least 20% of the kids are out. Both my son and then my daughter had some viral type thing. Luckily they are both improving.

Not just a 104 fever, a 104 to 105 fever that lasts for 4 to 5 days that Tylenol barely puts a dent in.

It's no longer just "media hype". It's "all around hype".
I've had MANY patients being discharged from the ED with discharge papers clearly stating "Flu like symptoms (H1N1)". What I want to know is - how the hell did they diagnose it as H1N1 and not regular flu (or just a bad URI?!!!)

Why is this a problem? Well, said patient goes home and 4-5 days later, pts. family member comes in thinking "well, my sister was just diagnosed with H1N1 last week... now I have it too". No amount of "Ma'm, there is no way for us to tell if pt. has H1N1 unless we send a sample to CDC for testing" convinces them... becayse they wave the discharge papers in front of your face and say "but the Doctor says she has swine flu!"

So now we have a seprate respiratory section of the ED waiting room ... and everyone with "flu like symptoms" needs to be in a mask and placed in a room. I'm telling you, we ain't seen the worst of it yet.

Wait till the usual, seasonal "pneumonias" from the nursing homes start to hit!

BINGO!! I was on a flight heading home from vacation last month. I had a bad head cold and a cough (mild fevers if any - highest was barely 100F). The looks I got from fellow passengers ...

Apparently in the age of swine flu, no one is allowed to have a cold anymore

cheers,

This whole situation is magnified by media, compounded by mass hysteria and panic with a lack of common sense thrown in there. No there is no bitterness there(insert dripping sarcasm). Just too much triage and way too many people with ILI type symptoms that even though I KNOW are the cold or a viral URTI I have to put in isolation(because the general public are not the only ones in a panic!!!) thus reinforcing all the unsubstantiated thoughts that they are sick with H1N1. People need to take a breath, stop and think, and stop telling me the whole cluster of symptoms posted on line. Give me the ingestions, MI's,or septic pt's any day, where I can actually make a difference.Sometimes my inside voice is screaming to get out....3 more days....then time off

It is my understanding (from our health infomatics and ED docs) that the regular seasonal flu had not yet hit our area so anyone with 'flu-like' sxs was probably experiencing h1n1 as this was the only flu in town--at least until the winter starts up when (in our area) we start getting hit with the 'flu' --mainly in December-Jan and Feb

Many of the flu-tests are also giving out false negatives--testing seems to be a wash out unless your patient is in one of the high risk group

The CDC has a great website with info about the h1n1 and the seasonal flu as well

This is where our docs get and develop their guidelines and treatment plans from