Swine Flu Case Definitions
According to the CDC, swine flu cases should be defined as:
• a confirmed case when the person has an acute febrile respiratory illness with laboratory confirmed swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection, which can only be done at the CDC and some state health departments.
• a probable case when the person has an acute febrile respiratory illness and a positive test for influenza A, which could be seasonal flu or swine flu. Further testing would next need to be done by the CDC to confirm that it was indeed a swine flu infection.
• a suspected case when the person has an acute febrile respiratory illness whose symptoms begin within seven days of close contact with a confirmed case of swine flu, within seven days of travel to a community where there are confirmed cases of swine flu, or if they live in a community where are confirmed cases of swine flu.
Keep in mind that not all suspected cases or probable cases will become confirmed cases, as some children with influenza A will be found to just have seasonal flu upon further testing.
Swine Flu Glossary
Defining some flu terms that you may hear in reports about swine influenza A (H1N1) should also help you understand what is going on:
• Pandemic - a global outbreak of an infection. A pandemic simply means that an infection, like pandemic flu, is spreading to a great number of people in widespread geographic areas, but it does not offer any information about how serious the infection is.
• Seasonal Flu - refers to flu strains that we see during a routine flu season.
• H1N1 - H1N1 refers to the types of hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) proteins on the surface of the flu virus strain. Although there are many different HN subtypes, the ones that usually infect people during a typical flu season are the H1N1 and H3N2 strains.
• Rapid Flu Test - a test on a nasal swab that can be done in a pediatrician's office or hospital on children with swine flu symptoms, gives results in about 10 minutes, and can report if a child has type A flu or type B flu. There is no commercially available swine flu (H1N1) test, so positive type A flu tests are being sent to local or state health departments for further testing to see if it is seasonal flu or swine flu.
• Avian Flu - the bird flu which infects birds, including chickens and wild birds, and which began to infect humans with the H5N1 strain in Asia since 2003. Although experts worried that H5N1 bird flu might cause a pandemic, this strain of bird flu has not spread easily from person-to-person. The World Health Organization reported a world-wide total of 421 cases in April, 2009, with 257 deaths, since cases were first reported in 2003.
• Social Distancing - the practice of staying away from other people when you are sick, so that you don't spread your infection to other people.
• Antiviral Flu Medicines - these are medicines like Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir), which can prevent and treat seasonal flu and swine flu (H1N1) infections.
• Swine Flu Vaccine - although a swine flu vaccine is not yet available, once it is, it would hopefully prevent swine flu infections in those who got it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment