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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> Precautions should also include isolating H1N1 swine flu patients in single rooms. And health-care personnel should use gloves, respirators, gowns and eye protection while in a patient's room. Hand-washing should also be practiced, Bell said.
Health-care personnel also should stay home if they have the flu, Bell said. Not only does this prevent spreading the infection to other workers, "but more importantly, you are not going to be spreading infection to patients who can be much more fragile," he said.
Bell reiterated that the H1N1 swine flu continues to produce relatively mild symptoms in patients, and much has been learned about the precautions that health-care workers need to take since the virus first surfaced in April. "These lessons need to be applied so if something worse comes around we will be prepared to deal with it safely," he said.
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Earlier this week, scientists in Brazil said they'd discovered a new strain of the swine flu virus, according to published reports. But it's not yet clear if the strain is any more dangerous than the original strain that first surfaced in Mexico in April and has since swept the globe.
The scientists discovered the new strain in a patient who had been hospitalized in Sao Paulo in April. The 26-year-old man, who came down with flu symptoms after returning from Mexico, has made a full recovery, Fox News reported.
Health officials are closely monitoring the H1N1 swine flu virus as it migrates from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere, where the flu season is now under way. While the swine flu doesn't yet seem any more lethal than the regular flu that each winter kills 36,000 people in the United States alone, scientists fear it could mutate as it circulates around the world, becoming more virulent and posing a greater health threat.
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