Feeling sick? Wondering if it's the H1N1 flu or just a regular old go-away-don't-come-near-me, flu?
Face it, your doctor may not be able to squeeze you right in. But you may be able to figure it out using a Web-based self-assessment tool developed by researchers at Emory University in Atlanta. The tool is now available on several national Web sites, including flu.gov , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Microsoft's H1N1 Response Center .
The online test includes questions like, do you have a fever? Have you been short of breath? Do you have a pain or pressure in your chest that you didn't have before? Were you feeling better and now a fever or cough is returning?
The online test includes questions like, do you have a fever? Have you been short of breath? Do you have a pain or pressure in your chest that you didn't have before? Were you feeling better and now a fever or cough is returning?
The H1N1 flu , also widely known as the swine flu, is a fairly new influenza virus that has spread around the world. The CDC reports that it first appeared in the United States this past April. By June 11, the World Health Organization categorized it as a pandemic . Because its extremely contagious, hospitals and health care workers have been bracing for the H1N1 to hit hard this fall.
With concerns about the new flu running high , health care providers expect to get slammed with a mounting wave of people rushing in to find out if they have the H1N1 virus.
The online test, dubbed the Strategy for Off-Site Rapid Triage, is designed to help a lot of people figure out if they need to see their doctor or go to a hospital.
"This Web site is carefully designed to encourage those who are severely ill, and those at increased risk for serious illness, to contact their doctor, while reassuring large numbers of people with a mild illness that it is safe to recover at home," Arthur Kellermann, professor of emergency medicine and an associate dean at the Emory School of Medicine, said in a statement. "Hopefully, providing easy-to-understand information to the public will reduce the number of people who are needlessly exposed to H1N1 influenza in crowded clinic and ER waiting rooms, and allow America's doctors and nurses to focus their attention on those who need us most."
Monday, November 2, 2009
Swine Flu Emergency Should Put IT on Alert
Though the H1N1 flu has been declared a national emergency by President Barack Obama, experts say that many companies remain ill-prepared for its potential consequences, which could include employee absentee rates of 40% or more.
While last month's emergency declaration is targeted mostly at helping health care providers and government agencies bypass regulatory requirements to provide critical care, experts say it should also be a red flag for the IT and business communities.
Organizations probably have not allocated enough resources for virtual private networks nor tested VPNs for the fact that 80% of their staff could be working from home," said Al Berman, executive director of DRI International, a training institute that focuses on helping businesses prepare for emergencies. "We ran some tests with companies, and they ran out of TCP/IP addresses in five minutes."
Berman said that many businesses are probably delaying VPN upgrades because of increasing bandwidth costs. For example, he said, DRI recently met with officials of a large insurance provider and found that it would cost the company $1 million to boost bandwidth enough to support 40% of its staff working from home.
The federal government's Flu.gov Web site, managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, offers guidance to businesses about what to do in the event of a pandemic. Its suggestions range from making sure sick employees stay home to appointing a pandemic coordinator or team to oversee the preparation and implementation of a disaster plan.
Employers should "send a very strong message to employees to stay home if they're sick. No one is that essential," said Kim Elliott, deputy director of Trust for America's Health, a public health advocacy group. "You don't want employees coming in and infecting others to the point where your business shuts down."
The pandemic coordinator or team should monitor employees to ensure that they follow basic rules of hygiene, such as washing their hands, and make sure that face masks are available, according to the Flu.gov Web site.
Elliott said that the planning process should also include an assessment of how the absence of a large number of employees would affect operations, with recommendations on how to keep things running under such circumstances.
"That may mean cross-training employees in some key business functions," Elliott said, citing IT infrastructure maintenance, bookkeeping and accounting duties, and some customer-facing activities.
Businesses should also develop a plan to communicate with municipal agencies, which determine whether bus routes, schools or even businesses need to be shut down, Berman said.
The national emergency declaration came after a weekly U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report called FluView noted that 43 states are now reporting widespread influenza activity and that H1N1 has caused 1,000 deaths in the U.S.
elevating its health emergency alert status to Phase 6 -- its highest level. At that time, the number of influenza cases was close to 30,000 worldwide. The WHO now says there are 414,000 confirmed cases of H1N1 and that there have been nearly 5,000 H1N1-related deaths.
While last month's emergency declaration is targeted mostly at helping health care providers and government agencies bypass regulatory requirements to provide critical care, experts say it should also be a red flag for the IT and business communities.
Organizations probably have not allocated enough resources for virtual private networks nor tested VPNs for the fact that 80% of their staff could be working from home," said Al Berman, executive director of DRI International, a training institute that focuses on helping businesses prepare for emergencies. "We ran some tests with companies, and they ran out of TCP/IP addresses in five minutes."
Berman said that many businesses are probably delaying VPN upgrades because of increasing bandwidth costs. For example, he said, DRI recently met with officials of a large insurance provider and found that it would cost the company $1 million to boost bandwidth enough to support 40% of its staff working from home.
The federal government's Flu.gov Web site, managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, offers guidance to businesses about what to do in the event of a pandemic. Its suggestions range from making sure sick employees stay home to appointing a pandemic coordinator or team to oversee the preparation and implementation of a disaster plan.
Employers should "send a very strong message to employees to stay home if they're sick. No one is that essential," said Kim Elliott, deputy director of Trust for America's Health, a public health advocacy group. "You don't want employees coming in and infecting others to the point where your business shuts down."
The pandemic coordinator or team should monitor employees to ensure that they follow basic rules of hygiene, such as washing their hands, and make sure that face masks are available, according to the Flu.gov Web site.
Elliott said that the planning process should also include an assessment of how the absence of a large number of employees would affect operations, with recommendations on how to keep things running under such circumstances.
"That may mean cross-training employees in some key business functions," Elliott said, citing IT infrastructure maintenance, bookkeeping and accounting duties, and some customer-facing activities.
Businesses should also develop a plan to communicate with municipal agencies, which determine whether bus routes, schools or even businesses need to be shut down, Berman said.
The national emergency declaration came after a weekly U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report called FluView noted that 43 states are now reporting widespread influenza activity and that H1N1 has caused 1,000 deaths in the U.S.
elevating its health emergency alert status to Phase 6 -- its highest level. At that time, the number of influenza cases was close to 30,000 worldwide. The WHO now says there are 414,000 confirmed cases of H1N1 and that there have been nearly 5,000 H1N1-related deaths.
iPhone App Tracks Swine Flu
A new, free iPhone app from the creators of HealthMap shows the outbreaks of the H1N1 swine flu in your area and elsewhere. The app, called Outbreaks Near Me, finds your location and shows a map with red pins indicating recent outbreaks.
The app updates every hour using reports from more than 30,000 sources. Users can report updates such as school closings through the app. The app was launched last month and now has been downloaded 81,000 times.
Red pins dot the state of California, with heavy concentrations in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Perhaps one of those red pins includes my friend (and many in his East Bay company) who came down with the swine flu a couple of weeks ago.
There are no warning signs, he says. One day you're happily working in your cubicle, and the next you're fighting a fever, vomiting and worse. He lost eight pounds in only a few days after losing his appetite for food and liquids. Luckily, I hadn't caught up with him in a while.
John Brownstein, an assistant professor at Children's Hospital Boston and one of HealthMap's creators, told the Wall Street Journal that the goal of the free app isn't to spark panic, rather to spread the word. To this end, he says, an app solely running on the iPhone isn't ideal. HealthMap is currently developing an app for Google's Android and, later, for RIM's BlackBerry.
The app updates every hour using reports from more than 30,000 sources. Users can report updates such as school closings through the app. The app was launched last month and now has been downloaded 81,000 times.
Red pins dot the state of California, with heavy concentrations in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Perhaps one of those red pins includes my friend (and many in his East Bay company) who came down with the swine flu a couple of weeks ago.
There are no warning signs, he says. One day you're happily working in your cubicle, and the next you're fighting a fever, vomiting and worse. He lost eight pounds in only a few days after losing his appetite for food and liquids. Luckily, I hadn't caught up with him in a while.
John Brownstein, an assistant professor at Children's Hospital Boston and one of HealthMap's creators, told the Wall Street Journal that the goal of the free app isn't to spark panic, rather to spread the word. To this end, he says, an app solely running on the iPhone isn't ideal. HealthMap is currently developing an app for Google's Android and, later, for RIM's BlackBerry.
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