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October 31, 2009

EDITORIAL: Worried about H1N1? Keep clean, keep calm

On Halloween weekend, the scariest thing around is H1N1. Unfortunately, it seems to be provoking panic in many people.

Health officials have warned for months that H1N1 was coming. They said local people would get it — probably many people. And they still say local deaths could result. So far, only one death in the region has been attributed to swine flu.

But the threat could be mitigated and the results softened if everyone would just act rationally and sensibly.

The first thing to do is to make sure your hands are clean. As health officials keep reminding, you can pick up germs from anywhere anyone has touched before. Frequent washing gets rid of the germs before you put your hands to your face, as you inevitably will. Once the germs get from the hands to the eyes, nose or mouth, they are on their way to happy fulfillment.

When you're in a public place — a restaurant, store or office, say — wash your hands as soon afterward as you can. If those public places are being wiped down several times a day, that still leaves a lot of chances in between for contact with germs.

And don't be susceptible to rumors. When a teen-age girl died at the CVPH Medical Center last weekend, rumors that she had fallen victim to H1N1immediately began to fly. Death of a young person is always especially tragic and ignites the worst rumors — suicide or drugs always seem to be the first order of speculation. Swine flu was thrown into the mix on this one.

None of them was the culprit here, school and health officials assured, and neither was H1N1, we reported, while trying to be sensitive to the grieving family.

The hospital in Plattsburgh is being overrun with patients fearing H1N1. In one day, 85 people went to the emergency room fearing they had symptoms. Pediatricians' offices are being called and visited in unprecedented numbers, sometimes stretching the staff's capacity to respond.

Absenteeism is rampant in area schools. While this may seem like an overreaction, it is simply parents taking precautions the local health departments have recommended. If symptoms appear, stay home, as much for the protection of healthy students or workers as for the sake of your own recovery.

The vaccine is on the way. We're told that manufacture was unable to match demand because of unforeseen delays in how the material was produced. The New York Times cited federal officials as pointing to "technical difficulties" in the production of the vaccine that were unavoidable. It simply can't be produced any faster. The situation was made far worse by earlier projections of when the vaccine would be widely available — projections that were overly optimistic and impossible to meet.

Fearful people expecting the vaccine to be delivered were thus made more nervous over their vulnerability.

Meanwhile, best health practices and cool heads remain our best allies in our daily efforts to avoid exposure to the disease. Keep clean, don't panic, and we'll be through this mini-crisis soon enough.

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