If your child or if you have the flu, how do you know if it is serious enough to require medical attention? The CDC answers, thanks to the NY Times: please click read more:
Warning Signs That Flu Is Serious
By DENISE GRADY
How do you know when swine flu has turned serious? Today, doctors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained what flu warning signs warrant urgent medical attention.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, the C.D.C.’s interim deputy director for science and public health, said that in the United States, 507 people have been hospitalized because of swine flu. She noted that people over 55 account for only 1 percent of cases, and 62 percent of the people getting sick are from 5 to 24 years old.
In children, warning signs to seek medical attention include:
Fast or troubled breathing.
Skin turning bluish or gray.
Persistent or severe vomiting.
Not drinking enough fluids.
Being unusually hard to wake up or not interacting.
Being so irritable that the child doesn’t want to be held
Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
In adults, serious warning signs include:
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath.
Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen.
Persistent vomiting.
Sudden dizziness.
Confusion.
Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
Another serious worry in both adults and children is when a patient seems to improve but then takes a turn for the worse and develops a cough.
Dr. Schuchat said that so far, the “attack rate” of this new strain of flu — the proportion of people in the community who get sick — seems to be from 7 to 10 percent. About 20 percent of people who are exposed to a sick household member catch the virus. These figures are similar to the usual strain of seasonal flu.
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