Doctors and ERs Flooded with Patients

By Rachel Stockton

If any of us are expecting to be given some sort of definitive number of actual swine flu cases after the pandemic has blown itself out, we may need to lower those expectations, considerably.

Ever since the two flus began vying for public attention, doctors’ offices and ERs have had a rush of traffic consisting of people who are worried about the swine flu.  Any other year, those same individuals would probably not bother their doctors with an appointment, unless they wanted some Tamiflu to circumvent the worst of the illness.

But this year, most of those who are coming into the ERs across the nation are not presenting with severe symptoms; most are fairly mild.

This mad rush has made it next to impossible to determine whether or not a patient has the swine flu, the regular seasonal flu, or something else entirely.  WebMD is reporting that most health care providers are giving anti-viral medications to those exhibiting flu symptoms without any kind of testing.  Some are even doing so sight unseen.

Most officials say that there’s no need for parents to even call their pediatrician unless their child is in the high risk group.  However, according to WebMD, even a child who is not in the high risk group but is displaying the following symptoms needs to be taken to the ER immediately:

    * Fast breathing or trouble breathing
    * Bluish skin color
    * Not drinking enough fluids
    * Not waking up or not interacting
    * Being so irritable the child doesn't want to be held
    * Flu-like symptoms get better, but then return with a fever and a worse cough
    * Fever with a rash

Fortunately, the death toll from the swine flu is not even close to the 36,000 lives that the regular seasonal flu takes.

So far, 4,100 have succumbed to the illness.