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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > AREA RESIDENTS GEARING UP TO BATTLE SWINE FLU
Article published - August 27, 2009
Credit: PRESS DEMOCRAT
Area residents gearing up to battle swine flu
By Martin Espinoza
Betty Rose, a quick-witted 76-year-old Santa Rosan, says she is no stranger to needles. Every fall, Rose has taken a shot in the arm to avoid getting the flu.
But this year, if her doctor recommends it, the number of shots Rose will be getting will total three, which includes two shots to battle swine flu when the vaccine becomes available sometime after mid-October.
“Nobody wants the flu and hopefully they'll have a vaccine for swine flu in the near future,” said Rose Wednesday morning, as she sat in a small vaccination station at the pharmacy inside the Safeway grocery store on Santa Rosa's Mendocino Avenue. She said her insurance covered the cost of the $30 shot.
Rose was shopping for bananas, bacon and other groceries when she heard the store's manager over the store's intercom announcing vaccinations for seasonal flu.
“Save the hassle of going to the hospital or your doctor's office,” the manager said.
Swine flu, or Pandemic H1N1 2009, as it is formally known, is not the killer strain some feared it would become this fall through genetic mutation. That's the good news.
The bad is that because H1N1 is a new virus most people have little or no immunity against it. In fact, its makeup is so old that some experts believe only people over the age of 64 appear have been exposed to something like it, and thus have some level of immunity.
Consequently, the virus could cause more infections and illness than usual during the flu season.
Dr. Mark B. Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health wrote in a letter to state residents this week that an H1N1 outbreak this flu season “has the potential to sicken millions of people in our state in the months ahead; as many as one in four Californians may be affected.”
Earlier this week, a White House advisory panel issued an alarming report that estimated up to 90,000 people could die from swine flu, with another 1.8 million hospitalizations.
CDC officials have since warned that the panel's report should be regarded with caution and some experts believe the number of actual deaths and infections could be much lower.
Nonetheless, county public health officials, local medical providers, health centers and pharmacies are all gearing up for what many believe will be a troublesome flu season. Taking their lead from federal and state advisories about the novel virus, local health professionals have spent hours planning their defense strategies.
Part of that strategy is getting a jump on the regular flu season.
At local Kaiser facilities, fall flu clinics will be held about two weeks ahead of schedule, said Dr. Stephen Parodi, chief of infectious disease for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California.
“Usually they happen in mid- to late-October, but this year we're going to be moving them to the beginning of October,” Parodi said.
The first flu clinic, is scheduled for Oct. 3 at Kaiser facilities in Santa Rosa.
In the past week since Safeway kicked off its flu vaccination season, Sonoma County Safeway stores have administered more than 400 vaccinations for seasonal flu, according to Susan Houghton, a spokeswoman for Safeway's Northern California Division, which includes 274 stores in Northern California Nevada and Hawaii.
“This is indicative of a population that is aware that they need a flu shot and they're coming to take care of it earlier and we're prepared earlier," Houghton said.
Seasonal influenza alone kills approximately 36,000 people every year and is responsible for between 200,000 to 800,000 hospitalizations.
“Proportionately we might expect to see more deaths or hospitalizations compared to previous years,” said Kaiser's Parodi. “But that does not mean that H1N1 is necessarily more severe than regular seasonal influenza.
At Southwest Community Health Center, medical providers at the organization's multiple clinics in Santa Rosa have been developing protocols for dealing with an H1N1 outbreak among Southwest's 30,000 patients.
“What we're talking about is how can we deal with the phone calls, the walk-ins. Who do we test and who do we treat, and how do we go about vaccinating?” said Cindy Dickinson, the center's chief of clinical services.
Dickinson said the center's Roseland Children's Health Center reported earlier this week a few young patients with fever and cough, as well as a couple of cases of pneumonia.
“We don't usually see seasonal flu before December,” she said.
At the Petaluma Health Center, more than 20 health care providers and staff supervisors met on Aug. 25 to kick off the health center's strategy for battling both seasonal and H1N1 influenza. The group examined issues related to staffing, patient care, supplies and communication between supervisors and their staff related to prevention of disease.
Karen Kennedy, a pre-nursing student at Santa Rosa Junior College, received a flu shot shortly after Betty Rose at the Mendocino Avenue Safeway.
Kennedy, who said she'll get vaccinated for H1N1 as soon as the vaccine is made available to the general public, said she usually gets her seasonal flu shot in September.
“I always try to get it earlyish,” she said. “It's better than the flu, better than the alternative.”
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