DPH urges limiting large social gatherings

In the wake of the swine flu threat, the Department of Public Health is advising the public to limit for the meantime the staging of large social gatherings.

It said the chances of people getting infected by any virus—not only swine flu—increases whenever they attend large social gatherings.

The World Health Organization raised yesterday the pandemic alert level from Phase 4 to Phase 5 due to the growing number of infected people across the United States and worldwide.

In response, DPH said it is ready to combat the threat. DPH said it annually tests its pandemic flu response plan and is now putting it into play.

The plan includes, among other things, increased surveillance, alerting all medical providers, promoting flu prevention, and working with the entire community.

The agency assured that it regularly receives updates from the Centers for Disease Control and is working with public and private health agencies to monitor the situation.

Although there are no cases of swine flu in the CNMI yet, DPH Secretary Kevin Villagomez assured DPH is ready to respond to an outbreak if necessary.

“However, we encourage the public to take proactive steps by staying home from work or school when they’re sick, avoiding close contact with people who are sick, and practicing basic hygiene like washing hands often and covering one’s mouth when coughing or sneezing,” he said.

The public is also warned to avoid close contact with people who are sick. It advised that when one is sick he/she must keep a distance from others to protect them from getting infected.

DPH said that germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.

“Athough the annual flu shot won’t protect you from getting the swine flu, getting one will prevent you from getting the seasonal flu,” DPH said.

The following are some of the basice information about the swine flu virus provided by DPH:

-Swine Influenza or Flu (H1N1) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by a flu virus that causes the flu in pigs.

-The virus usually do not infect humans. Infections happen mainly in persons with direct exposure to pigs. The infection can then be passed person to person.

-The virus is spread the same way that seasonal flu spreads mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing of people with the flu. People can also become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose.

-The symptoms of swine flu in people are expected to be similar to the symptoms of regular seasonal flu and include high fever (100°F/73.8°C), coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

– Eating properly handled cooked pork and pork products is safe.

-Identifying the swine flu virus requires laboratory testing of an ill person’s respiratory secretions.

-There are four different antiviral drugs that are licensed for use in the US for the treatment of influenza: amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir. CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir or zanamivir for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with these swine flu viruses.

– People that are sick with the swine flu are contagious as long as they have symptoms and possibly for up to seven days following illness onset.

Should the public have any questions or concerns regarding the swine flu, they should contact DPH at 236-8799/8797 or visit www.cdc.gov/swineflu.