About 60 people reportedly died of swine flu, with cases found in Mexico, the United States, and now Canada and Spain. To the general public, this certainly raises some concerns; but for the people on the EMS frontlines, this can be very sobering information.
To be honest, during my initial training as a doctor some years ago, I was frankly under whelmed by influenza as a disease. Sure it was contagious, and each year many elderly would have their deaths hastened by it, but I always figured that the average person might just feel sick for a while and would then get over it.
With the wisdom that time brings (as well as doing research on the subject), I now have a deep respect (Read: fear) of just how potent an influenza epidemic can be.
There have been worldwide epidemics over the centuries, but one of the most infamous ones occurred in 1918. What started out as a few cases of the flu, quickly spread across the entire globe. The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than World War I, somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history.
Looking at the present, swine flu is an influenza infection that pigs get; most of the time it has nothing to do with humans. On rare occasions, the virus might “jump” from one species (pig) to another (human). The key here is that, in general, our immune system doesn’t have a lot of “experience” with the swine flu virus, and so cannot mount a rapid response to lessen the effects of an infection.
As EMS providers, we get first-hand knowledge (and exposure) to what new viruses are out there. So what can we do about it? Choice No. 1: Become a monk (but I personally have an issue with their pay scale and the whole celibacy thing). Choice No. 2: Be proactive.
- Get the real facts about swine flu and what the experts recommend. The ONLY site I use is www.cdc.gov. A good link for the EMS provider is the CDC Interim Guidance page. It is sometimes hard to get the correct facts because of all of the media hype; the CDC is always the calm voice of reason.
- Use alcohol hand preps religiously, before and after patient contact. Use it again before you eat.
- Wear gloves with patient care, and change them afterwards.
- If the patient is coughing/sneezing, then put a mask on them, or one on yourself.
- Get the influenza vaccine yearly. It won’t give you protection against a swine flu necessarily, but sometimes you can get partial coverage from the vaccines.
- If you get sick, don’t go to work, and be sure to call your doctor. You might be a good candidate to start anti-viral medications; although, they are not a panacea against all influenza strains either.
The profession that we are in is not without risks, and swine flu is just one of the many that we face daily. Remember, one of the first lessons we learned was “scene safety.” So don’t enter a situation without assessing your own risks, then take reasonable precautions to mitigate those risks.
