Dr. Haering of Lord Fairfax Health District speaks about H1N1 virus
Winchester – If you’ve been watching the news, you’ve no doubt seen all the headlines about the World Health Organization declaring a “pandemic” alert on June 11 for the A/H1N1 virus, the highest-level warning possible for communicable diseases.
What should people in the Shenandoah Valley be aware of when it comes to swine flu?
7Bends interviewed Dr. Stephan Haering, the Director of the Lord Fairfax Health District, late last week and he provided some insights.The Lord Fairfax District includes Clarke, Shenandoah, Page, Warren, and Frederick counties, and the City of Winchester, VA. Dr. Haering works closely with the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Virginia Department of Health and all of the School Superintendents in the five-county area.
The Interview
Question: There have been just over 80 cases of the flu reported in Virginia, but none so far in our region. What would happen if a case surfaced here?
Answer: It would be be dependent the situation. We’d investigate and determine the risk level and then take preventative measures. We’d look at who the infected individual has had close contact with and provide proactive treatment – antivirals – if those people fall within the high risk groups we’ve identified. These groups include: children under 5 years old, seniors older than 65 years old, pregnant women, and individuals who already have immune deficiencies.
Question: Would the infected individuals be quarantined?
Answer: Quarantine is actually an Italian word that means “40 days.” Historically, sailors coming in from sea voyages would have to stay off port for 40 days until any threat of spreading disease had passed. What we actually do with H1N1 is isolation, meaning that we focus on keeping the infected individual secluded.
Question: What’s your advice to Shenandoah valley residents?
Answer: Above all, if you, or a family member, becomes sick, stay home.
With the H1N1 virus, an individual is isolated for seven days. That decreases the possibility of the disease spreading. You should call your regular physician or your local hospital. Those sick should cover their coughs with their hands, and should wash their hands frequently.
Question: What else are you doing now?
Answer: We’re reaching out and educating a number of key high-risk population groups, giving them guidance on how to handle any potential situations. These include the schools, the jails, the nursing homes, the Hispanic Communtity, and other vulnerable groups. Staff workers are keeping their eyes out for any elevating suspicious signs of virus symptoms.
Question: What else do you want to communicate about H1N1?
Answer: Right now, the cases in Virginia have been no more powerful than the regular flu. They’ve also been coming in at a steady amount, not accelerating. We hope the situation will remain that way. We are constantly monitoring to look, for example, at how virulent the virus is, and how well the antivirals continue to work. In public health, it’s business as usual for us, and we’re carrying on.
The Lord Fairfax Area Health District can be reached at (540) 722-3480.
For more details, including symptom information, visit: cdc.gov/H1N1FLU/
Or, visit, the Shenandoah Valley area web site at: http://www.vdh.state.va.us/lhd/lordfairfax/
Wikipedia.com provides this overview of the virus:
“The 2009 flu pandemic is a global outbreak of a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1, identified in April 2009 and commonly referred to as swine flu, which infects and is transmitted between humans. It is thought to be a mutation—more specifically, a reassortment—of four known strains of influenza A virus subtype H1N1: one endemic in humans, one endemic in birds, and two endemic in pigs (swine). A June 15, 2009 update by the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO) states that “76 countries have officially reported 35,928 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 163 deaths”.
WHO officially declared the outbreak to be a “pandemic” on June 11, but stressed that the new designation was a result of the global “spread of the virus,” not its severity. However, there is also concern that the virus could mutate later in the year and become more virulent and less susceptible to any vaccine developed to protect from an earlier strain. This concern is partly due to the memory of the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed approximately 600,000 in the United States alone, and was preceded by a mild “herald” wave of cases in the spring.”
UPDATE – On Monday, June 22, 2009, the Lord Fairfax Health District confirmed its first case of the H1N1 influenza virus. Stephan Haering, the Director, said that a teen is recovering at home after coming down with the H1N1 strain of the flu.
