SAM GETT, Publisher and Editor
Posted: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:38 pm

President Obama’s declaration of a national flu emergency last Friday just added to the H1N1-related confusion.

It started last spring, when health officials — and the pork industry — asked media outlets to refer to the strain as H1N1, rather than the swine flu. The virus didn’t hit Minnesota particularly hard back then and Northfield escaped the academic year without the school closures that affected other parts of the country. Still, there were concerns about summer camps. And some feared the virus would mutate and return in a more dangerous form.

Ever since local schools opened their doors in September, it’s been difficult to figure out just what’s going on. Despite numerous anecdotal claims of sickness among students, school district nurses reported little impact from the flu, indicating instead that student absences were no more than is typical for the start of a school year. Maybe the absences appeared greater because of the heightened awareness and because the H1N1 strain was known to affect young people more intensely.

Those who’ve been sick in recent months don’t really know what they had. Was it H1N1? Was it the seasonal flu? Was it the common cold? I’ve heard health officials state that anyone who contracted flu-like symptoms had H1N1. That sounded logical since we’re not used to suffering from seasonal flu in late summer and early fall. Trying to identify one’s illness from the symptoms wasn’t easy, either. The Centers for Disease Control’s Web site informs visitors that “you may have the H1N1 flu if you have some or all of the following symptoms.” What follows is a list of standard flu symptoms that people suffer through every year. There’s an asterisk after the word “fever,” indicating that “it’s important to note that not everyone with the flu will have a fever.”

Minnesota Public Radio devoted a show to the topic in September, inviting experts from around the nation to answer listener questions. They all encouraged vaccinations, frequent hand washing and other precautions to avoid the strain, which was sure to knock people off their feet for a week or two. Reasonable advice, but many folks who got sick in the weeks that followed recovered in a day or two, with little or no treatment. Everyone in my family experienced some form of symptoms in a 10-day period, but only my daughter’s reached a flu-like level and she missed just one day of school before getting better. Were we exposed to H1N1, the seasonal flu or just a common cold virus?

That’s become a more important question as, tragically, the death toll from H1N1 rises and previously healthy individuals fall victim. The Minnesota State Health Department’s media flu updates track the number of deaths in the state related to the strain, and — so far — have always included a note that those who died “had underlying health conditions.” But that apparently wasn’t the case with Waseca Medical Center administrator Mike Milbrath, who died over the weekend from complications related to H1N1.

November is approaching and, with it, the traditional cold and flu season. More than 1,000 people in the United States have died from the H1N1 strain, production problems have delayed the arrival of the vaccine and many question whether lining up for it is a good idea.

All of which seems to suggest the confusion isn’t going away any time soon.



— Reach Sam Gett at sgett@northfieldnews.com or at 507-645-1112.