Get Ready for H1N1

Get ready; it's back! Well, actually, it never left. After lurking around children's camps all summer and vacationing south of the equator, novel H1N1 has returned to a college campus or neighborhood near you with 21 states reporting widespread flu activity, a highly usual occurrence at the start of flu season. The majority of present cases are the result of the 2009 novel H1N1 virus.

Although currently the virus does not seem to be wreaking the havoc that was initially feared, it still presents challenges for us. The current H1N1 may be our dress rehearsal for a much more virulent strain, or the virus may play genetic roulette, becoming antiviral-resistant or more deadly. Even in its milder form, novel H1N1 requires our considered attention.

What should we do? First, we should not panic-thus far, H1N1 infection has resulted in mostly minor respiratory symptoms and fever for a few days. Although there has been a fatality at Cornell University, students at Washington State University who have recovered from H1N1 have said that it is not as bad as the seasonal flu that ravages their dorms every winter.

The seasonal flu claims the lives of 30,000 Americans every year. The addition of novel H1N1 to the mix will surely increase the flu-associated death total this winter. There have been more than 600 deaths associated with H1N1 in the United States and over 3200 fatalities worldwide since mid-April. But precautions for dealing with H1N1 are similar to those for seasonal flu and include simple public health measures-things that the CDC recommends we do every flu season:

1. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
2. Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
3. To decrease the spread of germs, avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.
4. Stay home if you get sick. Even if you don't feel that bad, stay home from work, school, and church. Limit your contact with others to keep from infecting them. Have enough food and medication on hand to stay isolated for at least a week or two.
5. Follow the advice of the Public Health Department regarding avoiding crowds and other social distancing procedures. Spring school closures likely prevented thousands of infections.

Vaccine for seasonal influenza is available now and everyone who can be vaccinated should be. Recent reports project that an H1N1 specific vaccine will be available in early October for high risk persons including pregnant women, people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age, health care and emergency medical services personnel, and children 6 months through 4 years of age.

Ample supply of vaccine is predicted for mid-October when the rest of us should roll up our sleeves. Notably, unlike the seasonal flu, people over the age of 65 are at less risk of infection by the 2009 version of H1N1 than younger people, likely due to some previously developed immunity to the virus.

Aside from this individual response, like any threat to the public's health, H1N1 requires a public response. We are asked not only to worry about our own health but also the health of others and to care about the common good.

As people of faith who gather in community to worship, we should do everything that we can to prevent the spread of H1N1 and seasonal flu. For example we should find ways of sharing the Sign of Peace that avoid touch. We should ask clergy and those who distribute communion to wash their hands before and after and to find alternatives to the common cup or intinction.

Public health emergencies-like all emergencies-ask us to think about the neighbor and ask what we can do to help. Global emergencies ask us to think about the neighbor whom we don't know, the person who is more vulnerable by reason of poverty, hunger, social instability, or ill health. Americans' response to our global neighbors is the dedication of 10% of our H1N1 vaccine to countries that do not have direct access to the vaccine.

Viruses know no borders and, in the 21st century, our health and the health of our children and families is contingent upon global health. H1N1 will not burn itself out any time soon-it is likely to continue to circle the globe over the next 2 years. We should remain ready.

For current information, see the CDC website.

Margaret R. McLean is associate director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at Santa Clara University. She serves as the health care liaison to the Human Concerns Commission of the Diocese of San Jose, Calif. This article was originally written for and will appear in The Valley Catholic.

September 2009