Trying to clear up H1N1 flu confusion

It seems that each day brings a new piece of information, or a recommendation regarding the H1N1 virus. Sometimes there is so much information, people aren't sure how they should respond to certain symptoms of the virus.

A national organization of emergency room doctors is offering a new set of guidelines to make things more clear.

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) issued guidelines today for when you should seek emergency care.

The guidelines, for adults 18 and older, take you through a series of questions about symptoms. Symptoms of severe illness include the inability to keep liquids down and difficulty breathing.

The guidelines also list people in high risk categories who should see a doctor with lesser symptoms.

Here's a link to those guidelines from ACEP along with a link to guidance on children's symptoms from the Centers for Disease Control.

So when is the H1N1 outbreak expected to peak?

It's hard to know but health officials say if it acts like previous pandemics, there's a first wave in the spring (we had one last spring), a second wave in the fall (which is now), and then a third wave later in the winter with the likely outbreak of seasonal flu in between.

So that's what health officials are expecting. And so far, they see no plateau yet for the second wave.

Kristen Ehresmann with the Minnesota Department of Health says, "Thus far in Minnesota, what we've seen is there's no evidence at this point that the second wave is peaking. When we look at the numbers, the increase in cases, our graphs just keep going straight up which means that we continue to see high numbers of individuals hospitalized with H1N1, large numbers of schools with H1N1 absences."

The most recent numbers at the end of October show H1N1 outbreaks at 288 Minnesota schools.

To protect yourself, in addition to the H1N1 vaccine, there's another vaccine you may want to consider getting.

It's called the pneumococcal vaccine and it can protect you from getting pneumonia, a common and serious complication from the flu.

It's recommended for everyone age 65 and up, a version of it is given to young children as part of their immunization schedule, and it's recommended for those with underlying health conditions, including two new groups this year.

Ehresmann says that "would be people who have asthma who are 18 and older and smokers 18 and older. They're also at greater risk for pneumococcal disease so they are also recommended to receive vaccine."

As for the H1N1 vaccine, as of today, the state has been allocated 470 thousand doses. Ehresmann says those providers still waiting for the vaccine should be getting some very soon.

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