The 2009 H1NI influenza strain had a large impact on the health of American people as well as the citizens of 74 other countries around the world (flu.gov). The first case of H1N1 was diagnosed on April 15, 2009 and was a 10 year old boy who lived in California and was participating in a clinical study. The boy’s case could not be identified as the standard seasonal flu and his sample was sent to the CDC for further testing. The CDC determined that virus was new to humans and first began as a disease in swine. The second case was a 9 year old child who lived 130 miles away from the first case (CDC pwr pt 1). The disease continued to spread until it became a worldwide pandemic with approximately with 43 million to 89 million people contracting
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One area that could have been greatly improved was education and guidance for how to manage H1N1 in non acute care settings. In a hospital if an H1N1 patient arrived, there were infection prevention resources available to providers such as segregation rooms with negative air flow. However in a non acute care setting, such as a primary care clinic, these resources were often not available. Therefore when H1N1 patients arrived at these non acute care sites, it was difficult for providers to know how to prevent spreading H1N1 within the clinic. It was also challenging for providers to know whether to attempt to treat the patient at their clinic or try to send the patient to another site that was better equipped. This lack of education was due to the CDC primarily focusing their infection prevention efforts at schools and acute care hospitals (Rebmann ?). Therefore future influenza preparation should provide education for acute and non acute care providers.
A second area for improvement was the vaccine shortage that occurred during the fall of 2009. The shortage was concerning because it occurred during a time when many children were returning to school. The major challenge of producing the vaccines was the significant amount of time required to grow the vaccine virus in eggs. As a result, the vaccine manufactures were tied to this biological process and could not produce vaccines at the requested rate. Therefore during the next influenza outbreak, public health officials must be more realistic about vaccine production
One area that could have been greatly improved was education and guidance for how to manage H1N1 in non acute care settings. In a hospital if an H1N1 patient arrived, there were infection prevention resources available to providers such as segregation rooms with negative air flow. However in a non acute care setting, such as a primary care clinic, these resources were often not available. Therefore when H1N1 patients arrived at these non acute care sites, it was difficult for providers to know how to prevent spreading H1N1 within the clinic. It was also challenging for providers to know whether to attempt to treat the patient at their clinic or try to send the patient to another site that was better equipped. This lack of education was due to the CDC primarily focusing their infection prevention efforts at schools and acute care hospitals (Rebmann ?). Therefore future influenza preparation should provide education for acute and non acute care providers.
A second area for improvement was the vaccine shortage that occurred during the fall of 2009. The shortage was concerning because it occurred during a time when many children were returning to school. The major challenge of producing the vaccines was the significant amount of time required to grow the vaccine virus in eggs. As a result, the vaccine manufactures were tied to this biological process and could not produce vaccines at the requested rate. Therefore during the next influenza outbreak, public health officials must be more realistic about vaccine production