H1N1 Influenza (Flu) Video Transcript
Video 2 Transcript
Texas Tech Community,
Hello, I’m Dr. Ron Cook and I just wanted to follow up with you on the Swine Flu outbreak and give you an update as well.
You may have heard that the Swine Flu cases are increasing here in the state and across the nation and many school districts have closed as well. We want to assure you that Texas Tech is on top of this and your well-being is our first priority.
We have teams in place, we are working with state, local and federal officials, making plans to sure your safety and well-being.
I want to also remind you again that if you are sick, you should first call you primary care physician or health care provider and talk to them. Those individuals, those providers are very well-informed and should be receiving daily e-mails about how to treat and contain this Swine Flu.
I want to go over with you some of those things you should be doing if you get sick.
- First of all, if you get sick, call your health care provider.
- We want you to avoid that close contact with individuals-Respiratory droplets from when people cough and sneeze, don’t travel very far. So you should stay no closer than six feet from an individual who is sick.
- If you are sick, please stay home-call in sick and call work and let those people know what’s going on with you.
- Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze-make sure you use a Kleenex and throw it away when you are done with it.
- Wash your hands frequently-either use soap and water or use those alcohol based hand sanitizers.
- Avoid touching your mouth, your eyes or your face- the respiratory droplets can transmit the virus that way as well.
- Practice other good health techniques-get plenty of rest, plenty of fluids and plenty of calories.
- If you need to take any medicine, like over-the-counter medicine, those are safe for cough and cold medicines. I would avoid Aspirin containing products. If you want to take Ibuprophen, Tylenol or Alieve, those things are all okay.
Again, isolate yourself from those other individuals, wash your hands and call your health care provider.
If you need more information, go to www.ttu.edu/flu.
Video 1 Transcript
Texas Tech Community,
We are in the middle of this scare over the Swine Flu. Let me introduce myself I’m Dr. Ron Cook. I am a family physician in the Department of Family Medicine and I am also the Health Authority for the City of Lubbock. I want you to make sure that you don’t get too concerned about the Swine Flu. I know it has everybody scared. There are some things that you need to know about it and some things that I hope to help relieve you of some of your concerns.
One of those things is that every case that has been presented so far in the United States has been relatively mild. Nobody has had to be hospitalized and most of those patients have been treated without any kind of special medication. So I want to leave that fear right off the bat.
What does it look like when you get Swine Flu?
Swine Flu looks like any typical viral syndrome of the upper respiratory tract infection. You’re going to have high fevers with a sudden onset, maybe 100, 101 or 102. You’re going to have lots of muscle aches like you’ve run a marathon. You’re going to have maybe a sore throat; you might have a non-productive cough; you also might have some gastroenteritis, some nausea some vomiting, that sort of thing. All of those are fairly treatable, we just treat the symptoms. If you have a headache use Tylenol or Ibuprofen; if you have nausea and vomiting just a clear liquid diet, just a very bland diet, don’t do anything crazy.
What do you need to do if you do get sick?
Try to treat your symptoms. If you need to be seen, please come by the medical pavilion and come see your doctor. Or if you are a student on the main campus please go to the Wellness Center.
We hope that this alleviates some of your fears. Texas Tech is on top of this. We are in touch with state, federal and local emergency preparedness individuals on how to take care of this. We’re doing monitoring and surveillance. If you are seen, what we will do is take a swab of your throat and send that off to make sure that it is or is not Swine Flu. Again, don’t get too scared. Let’s kind of keep this at bay.
Things that you should do if you think you are exposed are:
- wash your hands frequently
- stay away from those individuals that you think are sick
- if you are sick, make sure you stay away from healthy individuals
If after the finals week is over you were thinking about going to Mexico, I would not go to Mexico at this time. You are better off going to someplace else on the east coast or west coast if you want some sunshine, so don’t go to Mexico.