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March 2015 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
Protect Your Family
from Modern Illness
or Disease:
What You Need to Know!
By Dr. Tom Miller, Staff Writer
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Examining epidemics of the past
few centuries has brought to our
attention the importance of prevention interventions and their value in
controlling modern epidemics and
diseases. The smallpox epidemic
has been around for thousands of
years, recognizing its roots from
what European settlers brought to
our country. Mutating influenza
viruses have left their mark on North
America as has the polio epidemic.
Botulism is a serious illness caused by
the toxins produced by a certain bacteria, most often found in improperly
canned foods; it causes dehydration,
fever, stomach cramps, and diarrhea and is a part of contemporary
American life. Pertussis or “whooping cough” is a highly contagious
disease, characterized by violent
coughing. But the granddaddy of epidemics, revisited almost every year,
is the influenza virus in its multiple
forms.
Today’s family must address
how to deal with various forms of
influenza. The National Institutes
of Health (NIH) defines influenza,
or flu, as a respiratory illness that is
caused by a virus. Flu is highly contagious and is usually spread by the
coughs and sneezes of a person who
is infected. Contact with an infected
person, for example kissing, touching
or shaking hands, can result in the
flu. Adults are contagious one day
before getting symptoms and up to
one week after becoming ill. You can
spread the influenza virus before you
even know you are sick. According
to the National Institutes of Health,
between 5 percent and 20 percent of
Americans get the flu each year. More
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than 200,000 people are hospitalized
and 36,000 die annually because of flu
in the United States.
Prevention is the most effective
management tool for influenza. To
prevent seasonal flu, the Advisory
Committee on Immunization
Practices (ACIP) of the US Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) recommends routine annual
influenza vaccination for all persons
aged 6 months or older, preferably
before the onset of influenza activity
in the community. The ACIP also
publishes recommendations on the
use of antiviral agents for prevention and treatment of influenza. The
ACIP’s 2014 Adult Immunization
Schedule for influenza vaccine
includes information about the
recombinant influenza vaccine and
addresses the use of this vaccine and
the inactivated influenza vaccine in
patients with egg allergy. Additional
changes have been made for Td/Tdap
vaccine, varicella vaccine, human papillomavirus vaccine, zoster vaccine,
13-valent pneumococcal conjugate
and 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines, meningococcal
vaccine, and Haemophilus influenzae
type B vaccine.
Public health measures are effective in limiting influenza transmission
in closed environments. Enhanced
surveillance with daily temperature
taking and prompt reporting with
isolation through home medical leave
and segregation of smaller subgroups
decrease the spread of influenza. In
one study, symptomatic illness attributable to influenza decreased from 12
percent to about 4 percent with the
use of these measures.
Patients with influenza generally
benefit from bed rest. Most patients
with influenza recover in three days;
however, malaise may persist for
weeks. Patients most often require
hospitalization when influenza exacerbates underlying chronic diseases.
Some patients, especially elderly individuals, may be too weak to care for
themselves alone at home. On occasion, influenza pneumonia results in
hospitalization. Your immune system
is your bodyguard against influenza.
Learn how the immune system
works and how to keep your immune
system functioning optimally to protect you from infections. The good
news is that these types of major flu
outbreaks are rare and, in some cases,
preventable. Make sure your family
is up-to-date on their vaccinations
and remember to read up on the latest flu season information every year
so that you are immunized against
the latest flu strains. Also, take food
safety seriously. Simple steps in the
kitchen can protect you and your family from botulism, E.coli, and more.
Consult your family physician to be
sure you have the correct diagnosis