Swine flu raises fear of pandemic - Adults and Children

Nurses COVID

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

http://jmm.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/full/56/7/875

There appears to be weak evidence of both a theoretical and experimental nature that suggests steroids might have a role to play as an adjunctive therapy to antiviral agents. Although this should advocate a randomized controlled trial of corticosteroids, such a design is difficult to execute in practice, and is unlikely to be realized in the near future. Therefore, there are two choices: refrain from using steroids in avian influenza cases, or attempt to use steroids in a rational, meaningful way.

I'm saving my bottle of prednisone...

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Specializes in Too many to list.
http://jmm.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/full/56/7/875

I'm saving my bottle of prednisone...

there are two choices: refrain from using steroids in avian influenza cases, or attempt to use steroids in a rational, meaningful way.

I think that is exactly what the large animal vet was saying in the comment section of the first link that I sent which seem to be agreeing with your source.

But, of course if someone ends up in the hospital, the course of treatment will be whatever that the docs say. The WHO is having a meeting with international experts, and looking at what is being used to treat patients to see what is working. That makes sense, and hopefully there will be some benefit from the experience of the clinical practioners in Mexico.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

I remember reading about the autopsies done on 1918 victims and how their livers were rock hard and their lungs full of fluid that they had to ladle out, and how folks were dying within 24 hours when it came back the 2nd time. I also remember something about immunity if you'd had the weaker spring version....

Maybe I'm warped (forget it, I know I'm warped)....maybe we shoud be TRYING to catch this thing.....better to catch the weak version when there's just a few cases and lots of hospital beds/meds than the killer that could be coming when there's no beds and no meds?

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

Maybe I'm warped (forget it, I know I'm warped)....maybe we shoud be TRYING to catch this thing.....better to catch the weak version when there's just a few cases and lots of hospital beds/meds than the killer that could be coming when there's no beds and no meds?

YES! I was just thinking the same thing. As soon as my semester is done in a couple weeks, I might not mind getting this now. Thinking about it, at least...

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

the rn response network call to action

http://www.calnurses.org/swineflu/assets/pdf/rnrn_position_statement.pdf

links and resources:

http://www.calnurses.org/swineflu/

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I recall my grandmother saying that her mother, when one of the kids got sick with something (say, the mumps--this was before vaccinations), would plop the rest of them in the room with the sick one, so they'd all just get it and get it over with. Then they'd all be immune from then on..Kind of a scary thought, though..

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Specializes in ER, PACU, Med-Surg, Hospice, LTC.
I recall my grandmother saying that her mother, when one of the kids got sick with something (say, the mumps--this was before vaccinations), would plop the rest of them in the room with the sick one, so they'd all just get it and get it over with. Then they'd all be immune from then on..Kind of a scary thought, though..

Reminds me of the Southpark episode, CHICKENPOX: The boys get angry and seek revenge when they discover that their parents orchestrated a sleepover at Kenny's house so that they could all get Chickenpox.

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Reminds me of the Southpark episode, CHICKENPOX: The boys get angry and seek revenge when they discover that their parents orchestrated a sleepover at Kenny's house so that they could all get Chickenpox.

HAHAHAHA!! I freaking love Southpark..

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
I remember HK very well, have posted about it. Was a young LPN working then, plus a young mom. It made it's first pass in 1968. I didn't get it that time, even though I was working. It came roaring back in 1972, for some reason on this pass I caught it. Every one in my family got it plus my year and half old son. You can't imagine how sick it made people. Recovery took weeks if not months. That was a nasty virus, I can't imagine what the virus of early 20th century was like since they say it was worse.

Me neither. My family came down with Hong Kong flu when it made its first appearance in '68..........my mother was desperately ill, my dad only slightly less so. I was only nine years old then, but I did the best I could to take care of them, dosing them with aspirin and trying to force fluids, as I'd been taught, to try to get the fever down. I was sick too, and the cough stayed with me for months afterward. I remember wanting so badly for my grandmother to come take care of us, but my father wouldn't hear of it because the flu was so much more dangerous to elderly people. (She never did come down with it---her immune system was legendary---but he was right, and we'd have felt awful if she HAD gotten sick taking care of us.)

I can still remember how we all crept around the house for weeks, like stricken animals.........both Mother and Dad were too ill to go into town to see the doctor, and there were times I wondered what I'd do if one or both of them should die. Neither did, of course, but looking back I know my mother should've been hospitalized at the very least, because she probably had pneumonia and was delirious much of the time. But we were simple chicken farmers, and we took care of our own, and even though my mother's lungs never totally recovered from the effects of the illness, life eventually got back to normal. My grandmother later said that the Spanish flu hadn't been any worse, symptom-wise, than the Hong Kong strain, although it was definitely more deadly.

To this day, I believe that was when my asthma got its start, because I never had respiratory issues before the HK flu. It's strange to still be fighting the aftereffects of a long-ago influenza virus and seeing the possibility of a new epidemic more than 40 years later, but if the need arises I'm going to be right there in the trenches, like my grandmother was during the Spanish flu epidemic, taking care of folks regardless of the risk. That's all there is to it.

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Specializes in psych. rehab nursing, float pool.

I read this morning a 23 month baby died of swine flu in Texas. That is sad. Seems it might be more serious than I first thought it would be.

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Specializes in Too many to list.

Swine Flu 2009

This map is a work in progress. Help mark outbreaks, contact [email protected]

Map Key: click on marker for detail

Red Marker-Confirmed Case

Red/Person-Confirmed Death

Yellow Marker-Case reported in press only

Yellow/person-Reported death

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&t=h&msa=0&msid=102482117988980681054.000468592eeba0337d306&ll=36.315125,-40.429687&spn=118.005313,225&z=2&source=embed

This is an interactive map. Direct the arrows, and you can look at the other half of the globe.

For every case that is marked, there are probably more that were missed. It just seems that things could only get worse if anyone were to be co-infected with both Swine Flu and H5N1. I admit that the cases that concern me most are the ones in the bird flu endemic areas of southeast Asia and Egypt.

I am also thinking about those cases appearing in the Southern Hemisphere. This disease may disappear from the Northern Hemisphere for the summer but may continue infecting people down there duing their regular flu season. Surely it will co-infect someone who has regular seasonal flu as well. If that seasonal flu is H1N1, it is likely to be Tamiflu resistant. Right now, Swine Flu can be treated with Tamiflu, but for how long will that be effective?

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Specializes in Too many to list.
I read this morning a 23 month baby died of swine flu in Texas. That is sad. Seems it might be more serious than I first thought it would be.

Swine flu: just a statistic

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/04/swine_flu_just_a_statistic.php

The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and practitioners.

The first death in the US from swine flu in a Texas toddler is being widely reported, but a piece just in from Bloomberg says the infection was acquired in Mexico:

Some of the fear will be lessened by the new knowledge that the baby contracted the disease in another country. The empathy remains, as it should. Mexican babies are still babies, loved by their parents and grandparents even while being hostages to fortune like everyone.

As this outbreak moves forward we will be barraged by numbers and statistics. This is a form of spectator sport to which we have become accustomed. We follow baseball, the Dow Jones and public opinion polls.

But these numbers are different. As the late epidemiologist Irving Selikoff once remarked about the horrific toll of asbestos victims, "death statistics are people with the tears wiped away."

Indeed.

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