By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-10-08 17:38:02 | Word Count: 574
Our condolences to the family and friends of the 27-year-old woman who succumbed to the swine flu last week, Manatee County’s first fatality from the H1N1 virus. Deaths nationwide are fast approaching 1,000.
The threat of additional deaths becomes all too apparent here with health officials listing Manatee among 19 Florida counties with “widespread” outbreaks.
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That disturbing distinction serves notice that residents should not be lax about precautions and parents should continue to drill into children the need to wash their hands frequently and use sanitizer, among other measures.
The swine flu vaccine should become available next week, at the same time the official flu season begins.
Pregnant women; children from age 6 months and young adults through age 24; people under 65 with asthma, diabetes, weak immune systems, heart or kidney disease; caregivers of at-risk people, including newborns, top the priority list for the vaccine.
The general public will be vaccinated after those groups.
An underlying medical condition made the 27-year-old Manatee woman more vulnerable.
Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state’s largest health insurance company, will cover the administration of shots to members carrying a vaccine benefit. Other insurers also pay, so check your policy.
Nobody should take the swine flu threat casually, even the strongest and healthiest among us.
The University of Florida football team is but one of several college programs hit hard by the bug. The Gators flew back from Saturday’s game in Kentucky split up in three charter flights to isolate sick players. More than a dozen have fallen ill over the past two weeks, and we question the wisdom of those players even attending the game.
We urge everyone to please stay home if you show symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills, fatigue, runny or stuffy nose, and headache. Don’t spread the pain.
Everyone should avoid touching their eyes, nose or mouth since that’s how germs enter the body.
The coughing and sneezing woman we spotted at a grocery store reminded us that shopping cart handles should be sanitized with the wipes many stores provide at entrances. And also wipe down the place where you set your purse, else you carry germs back home.
Herald reporter Robert Napper put the swine flu in perspective with his Saturday article that revealed the regular seasonal flu proved fatal to an average of 37 Manatee residents from 2004 to 2007.
As county health department epidemiologist Ron Cox stated, people have greater odds of dying from the seasonal version.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that every year on average from 5 to 20 percent of the population comes down with the seasonal flu and 36,000 die. The most vulnerable are the same groups listed for the swine flu as well as older people.
We should all take precautions to lessen our chances of contracting either flu.
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