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This year’s flu season is the worst in many years, and young adults have been especially hard hit by the swine flu. People 25 years old and younger are the most likely to contract H1N1 and to get so sick they need to be hospitalized. This group is also the least likely to get a flu shot.
I urge you to take H1N1 flu seriously, not just as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services but also as a mother of two sons who, not long ago, were sitting exactly where you are today.
It’s easy to believe the flu is something only the very old or the very young need to worry about, that catching the flu is no big deal. But no flu should ever be dismissed as “just the flu.” The regular seasonal flu is responsible for 36,000 deaths every year — mainly people over 65. But H1N1 primarily hits the young. And even though most cases are mild, some can be quite severe. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates about 540 children and teenagers have died from H1N1 since April, and we are only at the beginning of the official flu season. Some of them were perfectly healthy when they caught the flu.
So what can you do to protect yourself and people around you from the flu?
Get vaccinated. It’s the most effective way to prevent the flu. The swine flu vaccine is made the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine, which has a decades-long safety track record, and it’s undergone more testing than other flu vaccines.
If you’re someone with a debilitating health condition, the CDC says you should get vaccinated as soon as your community has vaccine available. Other groups at high risk for serious complications include young children and pregnant women. People who care for babies less than 6 months old, health care workers and emergency medical personnel should go to the head of the vaccination line.
In addition, many people do not realize that simply being younger than 25 puts you in a priority group to receive the vaccine. So look into getting vaccinated at school or when you go home for the holidays.
Stay home when you’re sick. If you do get the flu, don’t go out, and don’t invite visitors in. If you live on campus but your home is not far away, consider going home until you’re well to avoid spreading the flu. If you live too far, check to see if your college has alternate housing for ill students.
Seek medical attention immediately if you have diabetes, asthma or some other medical condition and notice flu-like symptoms.
Make it part of your daily routine to keep the flu from spreading. Keep doing the simple things everyone does to keep germs in check: Wash your hands, cough and sneeze into your sleeve — not your hands — and disinfect surfaces like computer keyboards and countertops.
Go to flu.gov. Check out our self-evaluation link to help you understand if your symptoms are really serious. There’s a locater for where flu vaccine will be available in your community, tips on prevention, videos that give you critical information on swine flu, and even a section to help you know how to tell a flu fact from a myth on the Internet.
No one knows whether this wave of H1N1 will get worse, taper off, or be followed by another wave later in the season. But we do know that preventing the flu depends on all of us, and everyone will be safer if each one of us is serious about preventing and fighting swine flu.
Kathleen Sebelius is secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Bangor Daily News