H1N1 - An Update and Additional Clinics

by Jason Allentoff

On Wednesday, October 21st, The Ocean County Health Department held an afternoon press conference at their Toms River Headquarters. The subject? The H1N1 virus and where we stand at this point. I've been following this story since the very first case of Swine Flu broke out back in April. It almost seems like details change each hour. In the beginning, we were tracking each individual case in the state until it hit such a point that even Health Officials gave up the count. Now, the vaccine is here and in the first part of this four part series, we delve deep into H1-N1 and try to answer some of the most commonly asked questions.

Before April's outbreak, the H1N1 strain appeared in New Jersey back in 1976. The novel swine influenza A caused severe respiratory illness in 13 soldiers at Fort Dix. One person died. The virus did not spread beyond the military base. Now its here - more widespread - and it doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon.

On June 11th, the World Health Organization declared the Swine Flu a pandemic, moving the alert level to phase 6, marking the first global pandemic since the 1968 Hong Kong flu.

While the press conference was taking place, scores of concerned residents shuffled in down the hall to be immunized. Health department Epidemiologist Patricia High says information constantly comes in as the flu season enters it's second month. She says "of the influenza-A viruses that have been seen right now, H1N1 is the predominate strain right now not only in Jersey but nationwide."

Two injectible H1N1 vaccine clinics will be held for pregnant women, household contacts and caregivers for kids younger than six months of age, healthcare personnel, all people from 6 months through 24 years of age, and all people ages 25 - 64 who have health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications for influenza. The first will be Monday, October 26th at Jackson Liberty High School and the second next Thursday, October 29th at Southern Regional Middle School. Both are from 3 p.m. till 7:30 p.m.

Additional nasal mist clinics will be announced soon. Those are for healthy children ages 2 through 18 with no underlying health conditions only.

The symptoms of the virus in people include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people may have vomiting and diarrhea. High says a lot of these symptoms are also felt during the regular seasonal flu.

For more information on the H1N1 virus, you can call the state health department's special hotline at 1-866-321-9571. The Ocean County Health Department has been bombarded with calls so unless you need direct information on upcoming clinics, use the state phone line. To reach the local department, call 732-341-9700 extension 7-5-0-2.

The entire health department and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advise everyone to continue good hygine including hand washing, hand sanitizers, cover your cough or sneeze and stay home from work or school if you're sick.

So where do we stand as of today? So far, 74 countries have officially reported over 399,234 laboratory confirmed cases of the influenza pandemic H1N1 infection, including 4,735 deaths.

Tomorrow, we will look at how school officials in Ocean County are addressing the problem and what steps administrators and teachers are taking to continue the continuity of education.