September 19th, 2009 by admin in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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With news reports about the H1N1 flu all over the place, you may not think about the old “stomach flu” right now. Did you know that there really is no such thing as the stomach flu? If you have diarrhea or vomiting, it is usually not from influenza virus, but rather from another bug that got you. Often these bugs get us from not properly handling our food or from unsanitary conditions in our kitchens. Don’t go blaming the restaurant so quickly because studies show our homes are a breeding ground for bacteria that make us sick, too!
Top places germs reside
- The kitchen sponge and/or dishcloth is the number one place for nasty bugs to hang out. Replace your sponge every few weeks, or put it through the dishwasher so the heat can kill off some of the bacteria.
- The bottom of the sink is also very high in bacterial count. Just think about the conditions that germs love: Warm, moist environments. Your sink, sponges, and dishtowels are often wet and bacteria love it!
- Keyboards, computer mouse, remote controls, doorknobs, etc. I am guilty of this too: You are working on your computer and then you reach for a snack. There is a ton of bacteria on surfaces all over your office and home. Wash your hands every time you go to eat something. The toilet actually has less bacteria than many commonly touched surfaces around your office and home.
Tips to prevent getting sick
- WASH HANDS. I can’t emphasize this enough. Wash your hands before you go to prepare food or eat food. Wash your hands after you go to the bathroom. A good rule of thumb is to wash for at least 20 seconds using hot water and lots of soap. Use a hand sanitizer if you cannot always wash in a sink.
- Wash all surfaces food will touch before and after you prepare food. Wipe the counter clean before you get the food out, and wash it off after as well.
- Wash all produce well. Even if you don’t eat the outside of it (think watermelon, cantaloupe, oranges, etc) you still want to wash it. Once you cut into it or peel it, the outside is getting on the inside with the trail of the knife or your hands.
- Always cook meats to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Use a food thermometer to be sure.
- Do not keep perishable food out for more than 2 hours at room temperature. Get all food back into the fridge in 2 hours or less to minimize bacteria multiplying.
- Keep your fridge at 40 degrees or less.
Check out this research from the USDA:
Best Ways To Clean Your Kitchen Sponge
Your microwave or dishwasher can make sponges safer to reuse in today’s kitchens.
Heating your used kitchen sponges in your microwave for one minute, or washing them in your dishwasher and leaving them there through a drying cycle, are the most effective household ways to inactivate harmful bacteria, yeasts and molds.
ARS food safety experts who specialize in research on foodborne pathogens, like E. coli O157:H7, looked at several simple, convenient and often-recommended ways of cleaning reusable kitchen sponges. Techniques included soaking sponges for three minutes in a 10-percent chlorine bleach solution, soaking in lemon juice or sterile water for one minute, heating in a microwave at full power for one minute, or washing in a dishwasher—including through a drying cycle.
At the outset of the experiment, they soaked all the sponges for 48 hours at room temperature in a slurry of ground beef and laboratory compounds which allow bacteria, yeasts and molds naturally present in the beef to grow on the sponges.
Microwaving and dishwashing each killed nearly 100 percent of the bacteria, with dishwashing being only slightly (0.0001 percent) less effective.
And, microwaving and dishwashing each killed nearly all yeasts and molds; less than 1 percent (only 0.00001 percent) survived.
This post, H1N1 Flu: Where Germs Are Hiding, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Brian Westphal.
May 17th, 2009 by DrRob in Better Health Network
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Before you get too “conspiracy theory” on me, let me assure you that I am not going to talk about how the influenza virus pandemic is the work of terrorists (unless the Napoleon and Snowball are trying to take over our farm). I am also not suggesting that children are terrorists (although some do raise my suspicion).
The virus that brought such worry and even panic seems now to be “fizzling out” and people are now questioning if the authorities and the press overreacted to the threat. Will this be a replay of the “boy who cried wolf” and have us complacent when a real threat comes? One writer questioned if the flu “overreaction” was “more costly than the virus itself.“ Another article cites an Australian professor (of what, the article did not say) who stated that “the country would be better off declaring a pandemic of some of the real health problems it has, like diabetes and obesity.”
The real din, however is in the countless letters to the editor and calls to radio talk-show hosts mocking the “alarmism” put forth by the WHO and others about this flu. This does appear to be in the minority, as one poll said that 83% of Americans were satisfied with the management of the outbreak by public authorities. Still, I suspect the volume of the dissent and sniping at the non-serious nature of the pandemic so far will only increase over time. The number of people who know better than public health officials will multiply.
This pandemic is a catch-22 for public health officials, as an excellent article on the subject states:
The irony is that the overreaction backlash will be more severe the more successful the public health measures are. If, for example, the virus peters out this spring because transmission was interrupted long enough for environmental conditions (whatever they are) to tip the balance against viral spread, CDC and local health officials will be accused of over reacting.
Which brings me to the connection to terrorism. If public authorities somehow thought there was a 10% chance that New York City would be hit with another major terrorist attack, how big should their reaction be? If they suspected that there was a reasonable probability, say 5%, that the subways would be flooded with sarin gas, should they shut them down? I would certainly hope they wouldn’t leave that many people open to the chance of death.
And what is the best outcome? The best outcome is that this is an overreaction. The best outcome is that the terrorists, in fact, have reformed and are instead joining the Professional Bowling tour. I would welcome this outcome (not to mention the exciting infusion of young talent to the tour). The problem is, the officials have no idea how it will play itself out. Truth be told, since 9/11, there have not been any major terrorist attacks in the US. Does this mean that the money spent on the department of homeland security has been wasted?
As a pediatrician, I am very accustomed to overreaction. If you bring in your 20 day-old child to my office with a fever of 102, I will do the following:
- Admit them immediately to the hospital
- Draw blood tests looking for serious infection
- Check a urinalysis to make sure there isn’t an infection (using a catheter to get the sample)
- Start IV antibiotics as soon as possible
- Perform a spinal tap to rule out meningitis.
This seems a little over-the-top, doesn’t it? The child just has a fever! The problem is that children this age with a fever caused by a virus look identical to those who have meningitis. By the time their appearance differentiates, it is too late. This forces me to do the full work-up on every infant with fever and treat each one as if they have meningitis or some other serious infection. I do this despite the fact that the cases of meningitis are far outnumbered by that of less serious problems.
If this is your child, don’t you want me to do that?
Knowing what we know about pandemics, the same caution was, in my opinion, absolutely the right thing to do. If the virus turns out to be nothing serious, hallelujah. I don’t want my patients (or family members) dying at the rate that some of the previous H1N1 viruses caused. I want this to be a lot of worry for “nothing.” Please let it be so.
But I still don’t think it is time to relax. As one commenter on an earlier post I wrote about this pandemic stated:
It’s still a bit early to relax. The 1918 flu went around first in the spring and was very mild – kinda like this. Then it came back in the fall after incubating and mutating and was a killer.
I think the CDC and WHO probably will be concerned about this until next year, at least. Just to be on the safe side.
Remember that that flu, which was mild in the spring, went on to kill 20-100 million people.
For this reason, I hope the voices of reason win out over the armchair quarterbacks that don’t have to make these decisions that could mean the life or death of millions. Will you tell me that evacuating the NY subways wouldn’t be a good thing on the threat of Sarin gas? Would you criticize me for “overreacting” if your infant with a fever turned out to just have an upper respiratory infection? I hope not.
If you would, then that gives us ample reason to ignore your opinions on how this flu was handled.
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
March 5th, 2009 by Stacy Stryer, M.D. in News
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By Stacy Beller Stryer, M.D.
Between seeing the hoards of patients with multiple days of high fever and sore throat; taking care of my own daughter who was sick almost an entire week; and trying to allay the fears of countless parents who read about the deaths of two teens in our community due to influenza, I am exhausted. There is no doubt that the influenza virus has arrived and is wreaking havoc in our community. According to the Washington Post, our region has just begun to see an increase in the virus but has not yet reached its peak. Each year, the virus peaks at a different time, usually between December and March, although we only know after-the-fact when the peak incidence occurred.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 5% to 20% of the United States population develops the flu, over 200,000 are hospitalized, and about 36,000 people die. This includes children, particularly those with chronic illnesses such as asthma and heart disease.
There are many different strains of influenza virus and each year the strain changes. Researchers try to determine which type will be most prevalent for that particular year and, based on this information, develop a flu vaccine with the three most likely types of influenza A and B. Even if scientists aren’t 100% correct, antibodies which are made against one strain can provide protection against different strains if they are closely related. In addition, it is possible that a related strain, while not entirely preventing an illness, can still decrease its severity and prevent flu-related complications. For this reason, the CDC recommends that everybody get the flu vaccine each year.
So, how do you know if your child has the flu and not another virus? Often it is difficult to tell the difference. People use the word “flu” liberally and often, when someone says they have the flu, they actually don’t. You must actually be tested for it to know if you truly have the influenza virus. However, if you followed me in my office for one day, even four hours, you would get pretty good at picking out who probably has the flu. The specific symptoms can vary somewhat from year to year but they tend to be much more severe than other viruses. In general, they include several days of high fevers, headache, dry cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, extreme tiredness and sore muscles. The cough is usually the last symptom to go away.
The flu is spread from respiratory droplets, meaning people who cough and sneeze can spread the virus to others nearby. People are usually infectious about one day before they get sick until about five days after they become sick, although the infectious period can vary.
What can you do for your child? First of all, you can try to prevent them from getting the flu in the first place by getting the flu vaccine in the fall (or even in January or February if the peak hasn’t occurred), and by teaching good hygiene and hand washing techniques. You can also remind your children to stay away from others who are sick and to keep their hands away from their own faces.
If your child does get the flu, antiviral medications are sometimes an option to help decrease the severity and length of the illness, and to prevent potential complications. In order to be effective, however, it must be given within the first 48 hours of symptoms or before symptoms even develop. Each year, the Centers for Disease Control tests the flu virus in different regions throughout the country to see if the particular strains are resistant to the antiviral medications available. This year they have found that the influenza A is highly resistant to Tamiflu, one of the more common antiviral medications prescribed. Data so far shows that most of the circulating viruses this year are the “A” type. Tamiflu helps children feel better, on average, about 1.5 days before someone who has not taken it.
As a physician, I must watch for evidence of bacterial infections that have developed along with influenza virus in my patients. More common bacterial co- infections include pneumonia, ear infections, and sinusitis. Dehydration and worsening of chronic medical problems, such as asthma, can also occur. In 2006-2007, the CDC documented an increased incidence of staphylococcus aureus infections and methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in patients who were hospitalized for influenza or who eventually died. If your child has symptoms that continue to worsen or that don’t begin to resolve after several days, or if your child has shortness of breath, blue lips, cannot speak full sentences or other signs of breathing problems, you should see a doctor immediately.
