Friday, May 01, 2009
Symptoms
Among my fondest memories of working at the University of Washington were the opportunities to represent the UW School of Public Health and to meet a couple times the science writer Laurie Garrett.
Anyone who has read "The Coming Plague," and everyone should, must have extra interest and awareness as the nation finds itself in the middle of swine flu furor. I do know firsthand there are some wonderful people working in the field of public health. They're sure not motivated by money. What I mostly remember is that the School of Public Health never got anywhere near the dollars that doctors get when they do research on cancer, heart disease or surgery. People like to give money to fight diseases, not to help the folks who try to prevent disease. And yet it is the army of folks in the field of Public Health who we are all relying on now.
How suddenly that was so. This morning, my son and I were joking about whether his school would close because of swine flu panic. And then a few hours later, a friend posted on Facebook that she knew one of the children at Lakes High School now being tested for that condition. She said the youth were in an intensive care unit and at least one of them had been to Mexico. The story she told on Facebook has since been amplified by the local paper. And I felt that odd little rush ... like that little rush I felt the day driving into the Federal Way Park and Ride when the radio said someone had crashed a plane into the World Trade Center.
Lord knows, I know not to panic. I worked too often with folks in public health to expect this is anything but a scare, a warning, and isolated set of incidents. No reason to think it's the plague. That's panic. That's just silly.
And yet.
This is the school where some of my son's oldest and dearest friends go to school. This is close to home. Panic? No. Worry? Yes.
What do we do? Pray.
Update at 7:30 p.m. .... Whew
Tacoma, WA - May 01, 2009 -
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department received news late this afternoon
from the state Department of Health that the two hospitalized students from
Lakes High School suspected of possibly having Human Swine Influenza have
been confirmed as negative for swine flu. The third student showing milder
symptoms, tested negative by rapid influenza testing and was not hospitalized.
The samples were tested through two different measures and both tests
indicated that swine flu was not present in these cases.
Director of Health for Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, Dr.
Anthony Chen said, "This is the best possible outcome. Superintendent
Debbie LeBeau was very wise and prudent in her decision to close Lakes
High School until the results of the test were clear."
Forward this post
Anyone who has read "The Coming Plague," and everyone should, must have extra interest and awareness as the nation finds itself in the middle of swine flu furor. I do know firsthand there are some wonderful people working in the field of public health. They're sure not motivated by money. What I mostly remember is that the School of Public Health never got anywhere near the dollars that doctors get when they do research on cancer, heart disease or surgery. People like to give money to fight diseases, not to help the folks who try to prevent disease. And yet it is the army of folks in the field of Public Health who we are all relying on now.
How suddenly that was so. This morning, my son and I were joking about whether his school would close because of swine flu panic. And then a few hours later, a friend posted on Facebook that she knew one of the children at Lakes High School now being tested for that condition. She said the youth were in an intensive care unit and at least one of them had been to Mexico. The story she told on Facebook has since been amplified by the local paper. And I felt that odd little rush ... like that little rush I felt the day driving into the Federal Way Park and Ride when the radio said someone had crashed a plane into the World Trade Center.
Lord knows, I know not to panic. I worked too often with folks in public health to expect this is anything but a scare, a warning, and isolated set of incidents. No reason to think it's the plague. That's panic. That's just silly.
And yet.
This is the school where some of my son's oldest and dearest friends go to school. This is close to home. Panic? No. Worry? Yes.
What do we do? Pray.
Update at 7:30 p.m. .... Whew
Tacoma, WA - May 01, 2009 -
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department received news late this afternoon
from the state Department of Health that the two hospitalized students from
Lakes High School suspected of possibly having Human Swine Influenza have
been confirmed as negative for swine flu. The third student showing milder
symptoms, tested negative by rapid influenza testing and was not hospitalized.
The samples were tested through two different measures and both tests
indicated that swine flu was not present in these cases.
Director of Health for Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, Dr.
Anthony Chen said, "This is the best possible outcome. Superintendent
Debbie LeBeau was very wise and prudent in her decision to close Lakes
High School until the results of the test were clear."
