Worcester’s DCU Center Hosts Swine Flu Conference

Courtesy of Fox25Boston

This week Worcester hosted a “Swine Flu Conference” at the DCU Center.  Governor Patrick, John Auerbach of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and healthcare workers from hospitals around the state gathered to get updated on the latest plans for tackling the possible outbreak of the H1N1 Flu.

As we reported back in July the attention paid to the worst case scenarios did not seem to be as high across the general population.  Of course, in the summer we are not usually thinking about the flu but the death of the college student in Ohio from the swine flu has brought those thoughts to most minds now.

In July what prompted our post was the report from the MDPH of 2 deaths in Worcester County that were thought to be due to the swine flu.  One of the deaths was later found to not be attributable to the swine flu but the boy’s death was.  In all of the cases in the press at the time it was always mentioned that there were other underlying medical conditions that could cause the swine flu to be fatal. The Boston Globe reports that in the case of the Matthew Healey, a resident of Hingham Massachusetts that does not seem to be the case.

Governor Patrick announced that the H1N1 flu vaccines would be delayed until next week with priority going to Healthcare Workers and healthy children.  More vaccine was not expected until November.  According to the Telegram:

The H1N1 vaccines are recommended for all health care workers; children and young adults aged 6 months to 24 years old; pregnant women; individuals who care for children younger than six months; and people with chronic underlying health conditions such as asthma or diabetes.

As mentioned in our original post it is very important to stay up to date with the changes and recommendations coming out of the CDC and the MDPH.  The Massachusetts Department of Public Health website is the best place for complete updates.  Every report that I read or see seems to have new or different information.  The latest comment that got my attention was that if you have already had flu and/or swine flu it was still recommended that you should still be vaccinated.  They do mention that the vaccine is not mandatory even for healthworkers even though it is strongly recommended.

Here is a report I found on the latest information out of the Swine Flu Conference from FoxNews Boston:

I also found a special report put on by Channel 5 pretty useful in getting my head around not just the vaccination issues but the day to day things we can do to prevent both the normal seasonal flu and the swine flu. It was called H1N1 Flu Facts. It was aired on September 10th so keep in mind that some of the vaccination information has changed.