by Morgan Wolf » Mon Oct 10, 2005 9:51 pm
Hi all,<br><br>I didn't mean to sound shrill this morning. I was late and that's sometimes how I am when I haven't time to use more tact.<br><br>Obviously, I realize that people are afraid. It is hard to not be afraid. Ask yourself if you are at risk for Avian Flu? Do any of you travel a lot, particularly to Asia? Do any of you work with poultry or in the meat industry? Are you a health care professional? Think about the possibilities of your personal exposure to H5N1, barring some bio-terrorist attack. That might help to quell your fears, or at least, put them in perspective. Remember, SARS was blown out of proportion and it eventually died out of the news. Peddling fear makes money for lots of people, not just the pharmaceutical companies. Fear sells as well as sex, violence, and bad weather, which is why we see so much of it on the news.<br><br>That said, you must all do what is right for you, such as getting flu shots or using Tamiflu. Some of you mentioned asking your doctors what to do. That's a good thing. Putting your questions and fears in the hands of a trusted professional is a positive and healthy action to take. So ask your doctors what, if anything, they recommend. I'm pretty sure they will tell you that the current flu vaccines will not protect you against the Avian Flu and that vaccines themselves carry some inherent risk when you take them into your body. Tamiflu will not likely have any effect if you are exposed to the H5N1 virus but it has been known to help with exposures to other strains.<br><br>IMHO: You're more likely to get an average run of the mill bug this winter that will keep you sick for weeks. It is not because it is a virulent strain of a mutated flu virus, but because we, as a nation, insist on working when we are too ill to leave our homes. It is an unsafe and rather stupid cultural paradigm that needs to be broken. We don't stay home and give our bodies time to get over our illnesses. Instead, we take drugs that do nothing but suppress our symptoms. What happens? Over the course of one work day, we spread it to everyone we meet. Of course, the illness hangs on because our bodies are not able to naturally recover. Worse, our culture has a habit of heavy reliance on antiobiotics for every cold and flu we contract. Patients demand drugs from their doctors as soon as they get sick - mostly because they cannot afford to miss work. The doctors don't really like prescribing them unless you are sick for more than 2 weeks or if you spike a fever for more than a few days. It's important to realize that every time you use an antibiotic, it is less effective the next time.<br><br>Let's face it: we live in a quick-fix society. I'm expected, for example, to fill prescriptions in 15 minutes or less, if the patient request it. Trust me, this is an unsafe practice. Pharmacies are not fast food joints. However, corporations only care about getting your money, not in keeping you safe. They would tell you your medicine was ready in 5 minutes if they thought it was humanly possible to do it. If it were up to me, I would suggest a new PR approach: 'we take longer because we care.' I would never tell a customer that a prescription could be safely filled in 15 minutes. There are too many things that can go wrong in a busy pharmacy with over-tired, underpaid technicians and one pharmacist (who is on duty for 12 straight hours without a lunch break). It is a crisis waiting to happen. But I don't make the rules. All I can do is keep as alert as possible and hope to god I or another tech don't f*ck up, or if we do, that the pharmacist isn't so tired or half-blind from checking so many scripts that he misses it. But I digress.<br><br>One way of dealing with bugs/viruses is to use hospital hygiene rules. I have to because I am in constant contact with the public (who are usually spitting, coughing, oozing, bleeding, and sometimes vomiting, all over my work area and on me). Most people in the health professions don't get sick that often, because of our sometimes obsessive handwashing habits, and because we use hand sanitizers all day long. Most of us shower before and after work. To deal with germs on clothing, I keep a special hamper in my apartment and dump my work smock and work clothes into it each night. When it's time to do a load of wash, I use rubber gloves to sort my clothes, and I use a cup of bleach in every wash load.<br><br>During flu season, try and avoid public places if there is an outbreak, particularly, places where there will be a lot of children. Since I do not have kids, I don't have to worry about that end of it, but many of you do. Keeping yourselves and your kids at home if anyone is sick is the best thing you can do to promote good public health for everyone.<br><br>Here are some more links that might help if you'd like to learn more about how many people have actually contracted Avian Flu and died from it, what research is being done, and what steps are recommended for the general public. <br><br>Nature Magazine, Online: Avian Flu: Web focus<br>(Superb coverage. Nature is a scientific journal written in accessible language.) <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/avianflu/index.html">www.nature.com/nature/foc...index.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) <br>This webpage provides background information about avian influenza, including recent outbreaks, the viruses, and the risk to human health. <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/">www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Cumulative Number of Confirmed Human Cases of Avian Influenza A/(H5N1) Reported to WHO<br>10 October 2005 (This is a table: total cases reported: 117; total deaths 60 - Indonesia, Cambodia, VietNam, Thailand).<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2005_10_10/en/index.html">www.who.int/csr/disease/a...index.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Available evidence suggests no need to change the WHO recommended influenza A/H5N1 vaccine prototype strains<br>20 July 2005 (as of this summer - nobody was that worried, which is why this recent hysteria is suspect).<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/statement_2005_07_20/en/index.html">www.who.int/csr/disease/a...index.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>This one will help answer why the 1918 virus was resurrected in the labs - risky, but the NIH says it's the only way to prevent another outbreak.<br><br>Unmasking the 1918 Influenza Virus:<br>An Important Step Toward Pandemic Influenza Preparedness<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2005/0510state.htm">www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/n...0state.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Genomes of More than 200 Human Flu Strains Reveal a Dynamic Virus (interesting because it shows how very little we can do to stop mutations) <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2005/flugenome.htm">www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/n...genome.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Cheers, <br>Morgan <p></p><i></i>
