I will try to link more information here later with links etc. This declaration should improve Triage Care,and even release of funds. A National Emergency just means it effects all states.Should also mean that Flu Meds( ie Tamiflu) can be more easily accessed from Stockpiles. ( The Delivery of the H1N1 Vaccines has been problematic and less than perdictable,but hopefully that plan will be re-examined and coordinated as most states have been declaring their own rules and precautions during this epidemic). Click Link to LA Times Article. ( H/t to Mark Knoller who gave a heads up about this announcement on Twitter).
Snippet::""The potential exists for the pandemic to overburden healthcare resources in some localities," the White House announcement said. "Thus, in recognition of the continuing progression of the pandemic, and in further preparation as a nation, we are taking additional steps to facilitate our response."According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 46 states have reported widespread incidence of the swine flu, also known as H1N1. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in April, there have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations from laboratory-confirmed infections and more than 1,000 deaths."
This Website has more information, "Flu.gov", It has precautions and updated information of flu situation and interactive Map.
This Occupational and health Website explains what a Federal health declaration actually means and provides.
(RT This on Twitter:: http://ohsonline.com/articles/2009/10/16/president-signs-h1n1-emergency-declaration.aspx)
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Late Saturday Night Update: Chinese Paper very good information and tracking will post some of this article in Comments.
What does this declaration mean for you at this point? (Enigma Nursey Advice)
(1) Stock up on Anibacterial Soap (even liguid dish soap/detergent is strong enough).Lysol Spray for Surfaces ( especially shared surfaces like Keyboards,phones or doorknobs). Hand Disinfectant, keep some in your car and at your workplace ( ie desk). Do wash shared surfaces, phones, keyboards and doorknobs at beginning and end of shift.
(2) If you live with anyone that is Immune Compromised, do think twice about Large events and crowds.This also applies to folks with small children, young children and college age. ( and of course pregnant,elderly,frail or chronic illness) Good Judgement.
(4) If you live in an area with many flu victims think about whether you need to buy maks and have ready, this is not a panic move, it is being pro-active.
(5) Stock up on Flu Supplies so you don't have to run out when sick to get supplies: Soup/Broth Crackers,Gatorade,Ibuprofen/Advil,Tylenol,Aleve,Tea etc.
(6) IF you do get sick, and it seems like a very Severe Flu, different than other Flu- DO call your doctor and try to get Tamiflu prescribed so that you don't have to go infect others. IF the Symtoms are VERY severe- Severe headache,Fever, or dehydration or chest pain and trouble breathing DO go to the ER.
7 comments:
From Occupational Health article:
President Signs H1N1 Emergency Declaration
The declaration clears hospitals to set up alternate sites to house sick patients. It does not speed up vaccine delivery to the states.
Oct 24, 2009
The White House said President Obama signed an H1N1 influenza emergency declaration Friday night. Its practical effect is to allow U.S. hospitals to set up alternate sites to house sick patients, which some hospitals already are doing. About 60 million Americans already have been vaccinated for seasonal flu, and thousands are lining up for H1N1 vaccinations.
Groups of the population considered at high risk – young children; pregnant women, who are six times more likely than others to be infected, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden stressed during a Friday briefing; those with underlying medical conditions; and health care workers – are first in line.
U.S. flu activity continued to increase Oct. 11-17, according to CDC, which says flu activity is now widespread in 46 states. "Nationwide, visits to doctors for influenza-like-illness are increasing steeply and are now higher than what is seen at the peak of many regular flu seasons. In addition, flu-related hospitalizations and deaths continue to go up nationwide and are above what is expected for this time of year," the agency reported Oct. 23.
CDC expects about 28 million doses of H1N1 vaccines to be available in the United States by the end of October, far below an earlier prediction of 120 million doses.
If you feel sick and think you may have seasonal or H1N1 flu, Britain's National Pandemic Flu Service and the Mayo Clinic offer online assessment tools to self-diagnose your illness:
https://www.pandemicflu.direct.gov.uk/
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/flu-symptoms/FU00013
If you want updates about the three vaccines authorized by the European Commission to be distributed in EU countries -- Celvapan, made by Baxter International and authorized Oct. 6; Focetria, made by Novartis; and Pandemrix, made by GlaxoSmithKline -- visit those companies' sites and the flu pages of the European Medicines Agency:
www.novartis.com
www.baxter.com
www.glaxosmithkline.com
http://www.emea.europa.eu/influenza/home.htm
The World Health Organization posts flu updates frequently and released a new report Thursday that said infant vaccinations worldwide hit a new high, 106 million, in 2008 partly because the flu pandemic raised awareness:
www.who.int/en
In the United States, www.flu.gov and the CDC Web site are two great sources. Another one you might not know about is CIDRAP, the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/swineflu/index.html
Hi E ~ I have a practical question-- about the face masks..... I happened to see a display today & bought a few boxes, before I even heard the update.... but then again I have been tracking the Swine flu from the CDC site since this summer. The latest trend is 500 additional deaths per week.
So let me ask you.... how many masks should people have on hand?
Do you need a fresh mask daily?
What would be a reasonable amount?
I'm not being paranoid & freaking out, I just want to have things ready because if it hits this area, all those types of supplies will be cleaned out of stock in a hurry.
Between schools, 300 people @ the workplace,
the college campus population.... there is great potential for an outbreak.
I would try to have one with me for crowded places, and carry one extra with you and one in the car..
( Now I have a crappy immune system..so that is what I am planning to do...)
In Europe and Asia they actually make little cloth ones to wash and reuse- wash with boiling hot water,bleach and lysol and then air dry - the one japanese woman who made me one last year when I was working at the market- said it worked...
I think at this point with the numbers rising so fast - there should be Crowd Notices and also NO Communion at Church- here in Catholic Land I am calling the HD and asking them about that....Here they started giving Vaccines today- long lines at a school- and they gave BOTH vaccines at the same time- WRONG....they should be seperated 2-3 weeks....
I do worry all the states are doing their own thing- and here all the counties are doing their own thing...
BTW thank you fran for blogging it so well...all these monthes- you deserve a badge of courage...
( I am glad they are keeping such thorough tracking....for a chinese paper- I hope that isn;'t because they are producing our vaccine? I also noted reading their paper- that OUR rate of incidence is MUCH higher than theirs).
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U.S. records notable increase in deaths from phneumonia, flu in past week
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-24 13:09:46 Print
HOUSTON, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 507 more deaths caused by pneumonia and influenza (P&I) in the past week, bringing the death toll to 2,827 since the beginning of September.
The CDC said on its web site that from Aug. 30 to Oct. 17 there had been 8,204 laboratory-confirmed flu-related hospitalizations and 411 deaths, 21,832 pneumonia and influenza syndrome hospitalizations and 2,416 deaths nationwide.
Last Friday, the CDC reported 4,958 laboratory-confirmed flu-related hospitalizations and 292 deaths. Meanwhile, the pneumonia and influenza syndrome-based hospitalizations and deaths reached 15,696 and 2,029 respectively in the previous week.
Most notable figure the CDC released on Friday is that the proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) based on the 122 Cities Report has crossed what is recognized as the threshold of epidemic.
part 2 below:::
Part 2 of Chinese article::::
"During the 41th week (last week), 6.9 percent (comparing 6.7 percent in the previous week) of all deaths reported through the 122-Cities Mortality Reporting System were due to P&I. " the CDC said, pointing out that "this percentage was above the epidemic threshold of 6.6 percent for week 40."
The P&I mortality has been above the threshold of epidemic for three consecutive weeks since the 39th week, the CDC added.
Meanwhile, visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) continued to climb and has been much higher than expected for this time of the year.
Nationwide, 7.1 percent of visits to doctors reported through the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet) were due to influenza-like illness (ILI), comparing with 6.1 percent in the previous week.
This percentage is more than tripling the national baseline of 2.3 percent, the CDC experts explained.
Both World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) reported to CDC's Influenza Division that all subtyped influenza Aviruses being reported to CDC in recent weeks were 2009 influenza A/H1N1 viruses.
All these key figures indicate that the country as a whole has been in the second wave of the epidemic of A/H1N1 virus since early October.
Also on Friday, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden admitted that the A/H1N1 flu was more widespread now than it's ever been and had resulted in more than 1,000 deaths so far.
"Many millions" of Americans had acquired A/H1N1 flu so far, he said at a press conference in Atlanta. "The government doesn't test everyone to confirm A/H1N1 flu, so it doesn't have an exact count," he explained.
"We are now in the second wave of pandemic influenza," the CDC director said, pointing out that 46 states are reporting widespread flu activities.
The latest statistics released by the CDC on Friday show that the only states without widespread flu are Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey and South Carolina.
"What we have learned more in the last couple of weeks is that not only is the virus unpredictable, but vaccine production is much less predictable than we expected," Dr. Frieden told reporters.
A CDC survey released on Thursday found that one in five U.S. children had a flu-like illness earlier this month, and most of the cases were probably A/H1N1 flu.
"We expect that influenza will occur in waves. We can't predict how high, how far or how long the wave will go or when the next will come. " Dr. Frieden predicted.
As nervous Americans clamor for the A/H1N1 flu vaccine, production of the vaccine is running several weeks behind schedule as the vaccine is growing more slowly in egg-based cultures than manufacturers have anticipated, resulting in fewer available doses.
"As of Friday, there have been 16.1 million doses on hand nationwide, up from 14.1 million on Wednesday," Frieden said. "It's frustrating to all of us. We are nowhere near where we thought we would be by now."
Because of production delays, the government has backed off initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million vaccine doses would be available by mid-October.
The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs and the yield hasn't been as high as was initially hoped, CDC officials explained.
The wide spread of the A/H1N1 virus epidemic plus the unpredicted delay of the vaccines are complicating the CDC strategy against the second wave of the epidemic.
"Whether this will continue through the fall into winter, whether it will go away and come back in the winter, only time will tell," Dr. Frieden said.
What is strange is the way the CDC is melding the info..... the weekly update is included in a broad date range "from August 30th forward"... so dose that mean info is trickling in late & they are just throwing it all together??
At first they were much more precise.... and they are getting sloppier & slower as time goes on.
This is THE Center for Disease control after all..... WTF???
Anyway I was not sure if the masks are to be discarded after you use them for a day???
The for real masks has a metal strip on the nose line designed to be custom fitted to your nose so it fits tightly.
Anyway.... just curious if they are designed to be discarded after 1 day's use.
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