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Transported a Patient with potential swine flu. Now what?


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you said you were not the one transporting. Did you or didnt' you transport?

If you did not transport the patient then why are you worried?

i'm confused

The poster is worried because in his original post he asked "should any precautions be taken around the EMTs" who did transport. He is worried he will get cooties from the ones that tx the pt with potential cooties.

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We are just talking about the flu? In essence, a bad cold. Last year, we would not bat an eyelash over a febrile patient, now "swine flu" has us loosing sleep.

Take care,

chbare.

Agreed that swine flu was overblown but consider this. The "benefit" of SARS for Ontario is that so many medics were on quarantine and then reverse quarantine wearing coveralls, masks, goggles and gloves all shift, even in the base, that wearing mask and goggles on any febrile respiratory problem is pretty much standard across the board now. We need to keep in mind that the flu still kills a lot each year; not in general populations, but certainly in those high risk demographics we spend a great deal of time around. I'd also rather have the CDC, WHO and Health Canada jump the gun on severity of a disease outbreak and have to backpedal, then be playing catch-up when the bodies start piling up.

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Docharris, I'd agree with you about preferring the gov't overeact (within reason) than get behind the 8 ball. The state of Michigan doesn't even test for H1N1 anymore. We've been told, "We know it is here and it's not a big deal." Pts being admitted get tested, if appropriate so that they do not expose others.

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My toe hurts... I think I have diabetes because I seen it on TV!

Too often people freak out over the media hype of something by calling is a plague or something. They say it's a pandemic, and all of a sudden the ER is filled with everyone who has a runny nose. The moment a person becomes a "patient" we automatically assume they are diseased.

If we follow universal precautions, our worries should diminish greatly with a less likely spread of the plague. Do I always wear gloves when I make patient contact? No, I do not. I do, however, wash my hands a lot.

If you suspect swine flu, follow the CDC instructions.

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So much so that most are D/C'd home and told to ride it out. I had the one of the iso rooms on my last shift, and had 4 (out of many) who ruled in for type A. Tamiflu and taxi was the dispo and they were in and out of the ED in no time.

They may be better off at home if they do not present with respiratory complications. However, in a hospital people usually are not healthy and if you expose someone who is already compromised with something that can be easily acquired, you run the risk of doing serious harm to them. Thus, the reason your patients are in an isolation room. It is safer to consider someone with an infectious disease guilty until proven innocent than to have an occupation health exposure form to do and the extensive follow up with staff and other patients. If we have to contact other patients that they have roomed with a patient that had a serious infectious disease ruled positive, especiallly airborne, it is not a great experience to be part of but it sometimes happens.

Those that are admitted to the hospital with influenza A for respiratory complications are sick. Many stretch to limits of our high flow devices, in an isolation room, to avoid intubation and yet some still do get intubated.

Just the regular flu season is very deadly for compromised and elderly patients.

The flu of any type should be treated with respect and not blown off or taken lightly especially when surrounded by patients whose immune systems are not as healthy as yours. Become more educated about precautions and the various diseases to protect both you and patients.

Edited by VentMedic
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I agree with all you say, and it is a case of isolation until ruled out.

But, given our different professions, I am in no doubt that you are seeing the more serious cases, whereas I am seeing more of the media-frenzy-induced BS cases of general malaise with associated sniffles, which would ordinarily be treated at home with chicken soup and tylenol. Some of them are not even getting swabbed.

I know we have had a couple of type A admits (versus the many, many more sent home) but as we all know, there are usually other factors or comorbidities present.

Edited by scott33
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I agree with all you say, and it is a case of isolation until ruled out.

But, given our different professions, I am in no doubt that you are seeing the more serious cases, whereas I am seeing more of the media-frenzy-induced BS cases of general malaise with associated sniffles, which would ordinarily be treated at home with chicken soup and tylenol. Some of them are not even getting swabbed.

I know we have had a couple of type A admits (versus the many, many more sent home) but as we all know, there are usually other factors or comorbidities present.

I guess considering I do work in a large city in a very large ED, I would probably see more patients that have serious diseases. While we definitely see our share of patients who have the sniffles, we don't allow that to skew our attitudes to get lax with assessments and isolation protocols. We've already seen what TB did to our area as well as some healthcare workers in the 1980s and 1990s. We also still take it serious enough to keep A.G. Holley TB hospital open.

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Shrug, in a few short years we'll have something new to worry about because influenza will be gone. ;)

"...Because these antibodies kill a range of influenza A viruses — 10 of 16 influenza A subtypes ..."

"...The authors believe corresponding antibodies can be found to neutralize the six other known influenza A virus subtypes and the influenza B viruses."

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/02/23/...antibodies.html

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