Fear of the flu

For a few moments, Austin Torres was afraid he was going to die.
The night before, Austin found out he had the flu strain known as H1N1, the 11-year-old had a sore throat, headache and fever. His mom, Denise Torres, knew what was wrong but didn’t tell him at first. Austin woke up the next day feeling worse, so Torres took him to the doctor’s office, where tests confirmed he had H1N1.
When Torres told Austin he had H1N1, he immediately became upset and started crying.
“I was kind of scared. I had heard of all those deaths from H1N1,” said Austin of Tarboro.
Austin’s reaction wasn’t a complete surprise for Torres, a physician assistant with the Chronic Heart Failure Clinic at Heritage Hospital. She had seen worse reactions from parents who found out their children had or were suspected of having H1N1. It can be terrifying for parents whose only knowledge of the illness comes from news stories about outbreaks or deaths.
H1N1 needs to be taken seriously, as evidenced by the fact that many people in the United States and abroad have died from it, said Carol Schriber, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. From April through Sept. 26, when health officials stopped differentiating H1N1 from other influenzas, the state reported 13 deaths and 267 hospitalizations from laboratory-confirmed H1N1.
However, much of the fear surrounding H1N1 stems more from its unpredictability than from it actually being worse than other strains of flu, she said.
Until this year, the flu for many people meant vaccinations in October and the possibility of catching it from November to early spring, Schriber said. Older people usually were the most at risk.
Then H1N1 showed up this spring and hung on through summer, fall and now probably into winter, Schriber said. Instead of older people, children and young adults ages 6 months to 24 years are the most at risk.
“When it is something new, and of course nobody knew how bad H1N1 might get, then it becomes scarier. When it hits different populations than we are used to, then it gets scarier for people,” Schriber said.
In reality, the strains share most of the same symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, body aches, headaches and tiredness, Torres said. Some people with H1N1 also might have diarrhea or vomiting.
In most cases, health care officials are telling people suspected of having H1N1 that the virus will have to run its course, Torres said. It lasts an average of three to five days but can linger for weeks depending on the person and his or her immune system.
Because of shortages and fear of developing a resistance, antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu mainly are reserved for children, pregnant women and people already suffering from other conditions that can lower a body’s defenses, including diabetes, asthma and heart disease, Torres said. Tamiflu stops H1N1 from replicating and often cuts its normal run by two days or lessens the symptoms.
Since Austin has asthma, he was considered in the high-risk group and put on Tamiflu, Torres said.
Paula DeLong, 53, wishes she had been given Tamiflu when her first symptoms showed up Oct. 5. She originally was diagnosed with a bad cold and, later in the week, bronchitis.
“I got worse and worse. In fact, that weekend was the weekend I thought I was going to die. All I could think about was that my heart wasn’t getting enough oxygen and that I was going to have a heart attack,” said DeLong, sales and marketing manager at the Rocky Mount Telegram.
When DeLong’s conditioned worsened and she returned to the doctor Oct. 14, she was told she had severe bronchitis most likely as a result of H1N1. She couldn’t be tested for the virus because the limited number of test kits doctors receive are reserved for higher risk patients. DeLong wasn’t able to return to work for 3 1/2 weeks.
While health officials continue to work on the medication shortage problem, they encourage people in high risk groups to get their H1N1 vaccine and for everyone to continue the good practices of washing their hands regularly, coughing into their sleeves and staying home if they are sick, said Karen Ramsey, health education supervisor at Nash County Health Department.