Hospital Steps Up Effort to Thwart Swine Flu
By STACY MORROW
Updated 9:49 PM CST, Wed, Sep 23, 2009
A North Texas hospital's effort to prevent the spread of swine flu includes requiring emergency room patients to wear masks and newly established visitor restrictions.
Children's Medical Center will be screening visitors for flu-like symptoms and unless they are being treated, children under 12 will not be permitted in patient care areas. Patients will also be limited to two visitors at a time.
The move comes after the hospital's doctors confirmed 60 cases of the flu in the past two weeks. Many of the cases are believed to be H1N1, or swine flu.
"These are all precautions to make sure our hospitalized children, who may or may not be infected with influenza, are protected against circulating viruses," said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn with Children's Medical Center Dallas.
Kahn said adult hospitals are not seeing the same flu-like illness increases as hospitals catering to children.
"A lot of the respiratory viruses circulate in young children, which is why we are limiting children visiting the hospital," Kahn said.
He said the good news is the flu cases seem to be milder this season.
First Published: Sep 23, 2009 7:14 PM CST
You Might Like
You have 2000 characters left
