What your doctor should know to do about Swine Flu

Sister Janet tells me that Swine Flu (or, if I were more PC, "novel H1N1") is the scourge of the Chicago area right now. Probably everywhere, but who's counting? While number of cases reported seems low, that's because little testing is going on. So, anyway, suppose you or your kid gets sick with flu like symptoms, especially including gastro stuff (almost 40% of cases), here are two good guidelines for how you should be handled by doctors and emergency rooms. These are intended for doctors, but I can read them, so you can too. We should, having lived long enough by now, know that doctors and hospitals don't always follow best practices (witness the high rates of hospital-acquired infections in this country!)

• First is World Health Organization's Patient Care Checklist. You can take it with you to the ER and keep yourself occupied while waiting to be seen.
• Second is the CDC's guidelines for use of anti-viral drugs in children and adults.

I got these sources from the University of Minnesota's CIDRAP daily on-line newsletter. If you're a health nut, you'll really enjoy getting it too. I knew about the Nestle's chocolate chip cookies real fast.