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To start, I’d like to share with you a couple of items in the news. First, we have the pandemic influenza (H1N1) which continues to be of concern to epidemiologists and governments alike. In one week alone recently in Britain there were 100,000 new cases! It looks like this may be a significant public health issue this fall as children return to classes in school and people don’t get outdoors as much. The current recommendation from the Health Department is for anyone with flu-like symptoms (achiness, fever, headache, cough) to stay home, away from school and work for at least 7 days. Who should be tested for the flu? Unfortunately, the current nasal swabs available are not reliable for the novel H1N1 influenza. There is a special nasal swab we can do to test you, but it is sent to the state (KDHE) for testing. They are NOT accepting nasal swabs from outpatients; only from people ill enough to be hospitalized.

Who should take the mediation for influenza (Tamiful or Relenza)? The CDC recommends ONLY those who have other serious illnesses be tested or those in whom complications of influenza (pneumonia for example) would be especially difficult. For the vast majority of people, H1N1 appears to not be terribly serious … so far!

Secondly, what do you think about the Obama health plan currently being debated? I’d urge you to check out the bill yourself — that’s right all 1000 pages of it — to see what all it entails. The name of it is HR 3200 which you can Google and read about. Let me know your thoughts!  — DTD