Millions of people are contracting swine flu and thousands are dying from it. But doctors say the first sign of a cough or fever shouldn't send you running to the emergency room.
Doctors at Children’s Hospital are seeing the effects of the swine flu scare. People are scared and they're showing up in emergency rooms causing long waits and overcrowding.
The doctors say this does not have to happen because there are some folks who don't need to come to the ER they can be treated by their family doctor. At the first sign of a cough and fever parents think swine flu and it's off to Arkansas Children's Hospital.
"We’ve had a very dramatic increase in our patients census and in the number of children that we see," Dr. James Graham said.
Dr. Graham understands the concern they've had some pretty serious cases here, like
Atkins football player Luke Duvall, who spent 34 days in the hospital with the swine flu before going home. And a couple of children have even died from swine flu complications. "Certainly that's one reason people have come to the emergency room. People are afraid," Dr. Graham said.
Across the country health officials say 22 million Americans have been infected with the virus 4,000 have died, among them 540 children.
The ER has been so overcrowded they're forced to make some changes. "We’ve increased staffing; we've added an additional waiting room for the emergency room."
Dr. Graham says a lot of children who show up in the ER don't need to be here. He adds for a cough, running nose, fever and aches, over the counter medication can do the trick or simply see your family doctor. This helps cut down on the wait time for children who really need to be here.
In case you have not gotten the swine flu vaccine Arkansas Department of Health says
mass flu shot clinics start again December 7th. Thousands of pregnant women and children have gotten the swine flu shot already.
The Arkansas death toll from the swine flu is now at 18. According to the Pulaski county coroner a
Bauxite man tested positive for swine flu and died November 11th. The health department is not yet calling his death a swine flu death.
