| Navy Leaders Worry About Tamiflu Shortage |
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Naval Hospital Bremerton could provide beds for as many as 1,700 people in the event of an avian flu pandemic. But its staff only could treat about 200 of them with the drug Tamiflu, which is commonly used to treat bird flu. The officer in charge of a three-day drill this week at the facility acknowledged that "there are lots of issues yet to be resolved" in case of a real disease disaster. The drill, involving only a handful of simulated avian flu patients, began Tuesday and finished up Thursday at the hospital, which serves active-duty military members, their dependants and retirees... Click here to buy cheap Tamiflu online now The facility staff’s capacity could be even smaller than 200, depending on the number of hospital workers who might come down with the flu or stay home to take care of ill family members, Morash said. That’s just one of many unknowns that challenges the Navy and other entities planning for a possibleoutbreak of avian flu or another flu virus. Buy Tamiflu online. This week’s drill focused on the basics: taking in and screening people with flu-like symptoms, as well as those referred to as "worried sick" or, more aptly, "worried well." Medical corpsmen stationed at the hospital’s main gate did preliminary examinations to look for people exhibiting increased respiratory rates, heart rates faster than 100 beats per minute and high temperatures. Buy Tamiflu online. Chief Petty Officer Rich Hoover, one of the gate monitors, sent those with symptoms to one triage center. People without symptoms who thought they might have been exposed or who were just worried went to another center. Both centers are located away from the main hospital building. One of the primary concerns in an epidemic or pandemic would be isolating flu patients from other people at the hospital and ensuring caregivers themselves don’t spread the disease, said Tom Shirk, the hospital’s infection control coordinator. Naval Hospital Bremerton doesn’t have enough Tamiflu, the most common bird flu drug, to treat its own staff, said Morash. During the SARS outbreak in Toronto, health workers were among those most vulnerable to the virus, Shirk said. Buy cheap Tamiflu online. Lessons learned from SARS also called into question the practice of designating one area hospital as the intake center for people believed to be part of an epidemic, Morash said. Years later, people may still associate that hospital with the disease, he said. That’s yet another consideration for the Navy, county public health officials and other local medical facilities in coordinating responses to a potential outbreak. With hospitals likely being overwhelmed during a flu outbreak, the best thing people can do is be prepared to stay at home for a week or more, Morash said. "Ideally, it’s a sort of self-quarantine," he said. Incubation periods vary for different strains of the flu, he said. And conventional wisdom about young children and older adults being most vulnerable doesn’t necessarily hold true. Many experts believe an avian flu outbreak, for example, would hit healthy working-age adults hardest because it would elicit a strong immune-system response, Morash said. Although this week’s drill was a "low-key, walk-through," a bigger exercise with 75 to 100 flu patients is in the planning stages for October, Morash said. Plan for a Pandemic: Store a two-week supply of water and food. Keep nonprescription drugs and other health supplies on hand. Teach your children to wash hands frequently with soap and water, cover coughs and sneezes with tissues and avoid others as much as possible if they are sick. Stay home from work and school if sick. Check www.pandemicflu.gov Click here to buy cheap Tamiflu online now *** |
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 22 July 2006 ) |
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