Got this from the H5N1 typepad .com site. Thanks to them and Dr. Grattan Woodson here is a free online 17 page guide for home care for influenza patients. I hope this turns out okay, if not could someone fix it for me, havent posted in quite a while. Thanks, Pat
Download good home treatment of influenza (pdf format)
link fixed - pogge
Sorry, got this from http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1
The booklet is worth downloading, but I cant figure out the pmwiki markup thing. Sorry
Thanks Pat!
Page 16 ,(Remaining sane during the pandemic),is especially going to be relevent.
I just wish they had a page “Remaining sane as one of the few people in the world that are watching the pandemic unfold before you”.
I posted this in the FluPrep thread but think it got lost…will try again here to see in anyone has things I should be thinking about sooner rather than later:
I was cleaning out the kids’ closets (must make room for more TP!) and pulled out a plastic/vinyl child’s tent. It’s the play tent kind, not the camping kind, and is a single piece that goes over a collapsible frame made of plastic tubing. (The Aussies might appreciate “Bananas in Pajamas” on it, too, lol, even if nobody else knows who I’m talking about!)
The kids don’t really play with it anymore but I got to wondering if it might be workable as a steam tent, like Dr Woodson suggests.
The dimensions are off a bit since it’s rectangular instead of square, and I’d have to tape the window flaps closed, but the tent & frame are light enough that they could be suspended over a bed. It also stands up to being scrubbed and being cleaned with bleach; I know that one from experience. Most importantly, I already have it on hand and had been trying to figure out an inexpensive way to construct a steam tent for the kids.
I’d appreciate any suggestions/input/flaws if you have them…would rather get them worked out now instead a ‘SIP with a sick child’ situation later. TIA!
The guide is on the Flu Wiki ftp.
Petticoat Junction — I have used a steam tent with my son when he had bad croup — I just had an umbrella over the two of us on a bed, with a plain sheet over the umbrella, and the humidifier under the sheet. I would say, try your plan with a humidifier or teakettle or whatever, and see if it keeps in the steam. If it keeps in the steam so you can breathe it, it would work. If it doesn’t keep in the steam, maybe you could cover the tent with a sheet. I don’t think there’s anything magic about an actual tent, just that it is waterproof so it would keep in the steam well.
I am very grateful to the Flu wiki moderators for posting my new the booklet, Good Home Care for Influenza, in the Personal Preparedness section of the site. Here is the link to that area.
http://fluwikie.com/index.php?n=Consequences.PandemicPreparednessGuides)
This booklet on home treatment of influenza was written for consumers, public health agencies, businesses, and non-profit organizations and may be copied and distributed in part or in whole without a licensing fee.
The guide was written for people without prior medical training and does not rely on prescription medications or complex and expensive medical equipment. My purpose was to craft a booklet that provided the information people need to provide good care to patients with mild to severe influenza in the home setting during a pandemic when access to traditional providers might not be available. It is my hope that this booklet people interested in preparing for the coming pandemic and helping others do the same will download this booklet; share the PDF with their family and friends.
Best regards,
Grattan Woodson, MD, FACP
Download and Use Options
Employers may copy and distribute the guide free of charge to their staff.
NGOs, non-profits and for-profit healthcare organizations are welcome to use the booklet however they wish, either as part of the mission or for their staff.
Health Departments and other public agencies are free to incorporate this document into their current public education program it they wish. In these ways, the booklet can reach the most people and therefore have the potential to do the greatest good.
Consumers: The 10-point PDF version of the booklet is designed for personal use and sharing with others.
Large Print Version: The 16-point PDF is provided for those wanting a large print version.
Booklet printing: The 16-point version is designed for printing as 34-page booklet that feature left edge binding with two pages printed in portrait orientation on each side of the page. Booklets printed in the way utilize 9 pieces of 8.5” x 11” paper and are suitable for color or black and white printing.
Dr. Woodson, we are all extremely grateful to you for allowing us to share the great knowledge in your booklet. If a pandemic begins, I think you have contributed to saving many lives. Thank you!
The Doctor – at 16:30 Dr Woodson Thank you so very much for the guide.
I hope that you would find the time to visit this site on a regular basis. We non HCW’s value the debate and discussion that the HCW’s have here and it helps us understand the risk and problems.
Again thank you for the guide.
Dr Woodson,
Your guide helped me inderstand H5N1 and all its ramifications last year - Post Qinghai.
I cannot thank you enough for what you have done. It is thrilling to have you here at FW with us. At times it seems as if we are runnig uphill all the time trying to get our loved ones, friends, aquaintences and neighbors to understand the danger we face. Your guide helps us in that persuit of life.
Thank you.
I would also like to thank you, Dr. Woodson. I wouldn’t have known where to begin, or what to expect nursing a severe case of flu. Your booklet is of inestimable aid to those of us that will be floundering alone, trying to cope. I appreciate that you have recommended non-prescription medicines that are easily attainable at this time, too. Thank you for your generosity in sharing this with the world.
Dr. Woodson - Is there any way you might be able to help motivate a national organization such as the Visiting Nurse Association to evolve from an organization that is well known for administering flu vaccine clinics to one that can assist and advise on home nursing should a pandemic occur?
Thank you for your pamphlet, and your newly published book also. The practical nursing information you provide to non-medical caregivers will be a lifesaver.
Dr. Woodson - Is there any way you might be able to help motivate a national organization such as the Visiting Nurse Association to evolve from an organization that is well known for administering flu vaccine clinics to one that can assist and advise on home nursing should a pandemic occur?
Thank you for your pamphlet, and your newly published book also. The practical nursing information you provide to non-medical caregivers will be a lifesaver.
I value my membership in the Flu Wiki community greatly as it gives me an opportunity to share what little I know about taking care of people with flu. Your kind words and encouragement have been an important source of strength for me to continue my work in this area.
It can be frustrating and a bit frightening to be one of the few people that see the risk we collectively face from pandemic influenza. By trying to increase awareness of this issue, it is likely that some of you may have been criticized or ridiculed for your actions. This is the cost of foresight. We remain responsible to do what we can to help as many people as we can, even those who have made our attempt to help in the past unpleasant. The time will come when these folks will be in desperate need of your help and I pray that all of us will have the compassion and wisdom to forgive them and do what we can the lend them a hand.
As the pandemic returns to the news in the coming month and fears rise again, additional people will begin to see the issue more clearly. This process will evolve and as it does, a growing number of people will begin the process of preparing for pandemic. Inevitably, the vast majority of people will not be prepared and have no clue what to do. This is in the nature of humankind and is one of the reasons this pandemic has the potential to be so devastating.
It is my hope that people and organizations committed to providing pandemic assistance to their community will pre-print a supply of this booklet, Good Home Influenza Treatment, and when the time comes, distribute them widely. In my opinion, there is little likelihood that the traditional healthcare system can accommodate this emergency. For this reason, home care will be the only option for the majority of people worldwide. In that regard, I would like to see this booklet translated into languages other than English as the information it contains is applicable to people wherever they live.
Best regards,
Grattan Woodson, MD, FACP
“We remain responsible to do what we can to help as many people as we can, even those who have made our attempt to help in the past unpleasant. The time will come when these folks will be in desperate need of your help and I pray that all of us will have the compassion and wisdom to forgive them and do what we can the lend them a hand. “
Thank you for that, Dr. Woodson. I don’t think I could make it through a pandemic without knowing that I will help others wherever I can.
Have you read about our PFAW and the ongoing Red Ribbon campaign? I am printing out many copies of your booklet to hand out with our Pandemic Flu Awareness cards.
I think you have been very courageous in coming out ahead of the curve with your booklet and book.
I would like to see this booklet translated into languages other than English as the information it contains is applicable to people wherever they live.
How would we go about that? I have some experience in translation and I could help with the Spanish. Please write to me - lugon at singtomeohmuse dot com.
I think the way to go would be to have some cooperative translation: making it easy for several people in each language to lend a hand. That way we’d have faster translations and also a community of people devoted to double checking the quality of the translations. You’d only need to have ONE trusted person in each language, so that they would report back to you regarding accuracy.
We (I mean DemFromCT and I, at some point in time) thought of doing that with the whole wiki. I have some other news to share in private, but they are far away in the distance so I don’t think they are useful at this stage. So we might be able to have some translations of your 17–35 page booklet. We might copy the content as wikipages, create “sister pages” for the translations, and have forum threads so that people would gather around each chapter to help, discuss what word fits best, or simply encourage the lonesome ranger doing the work in the open. Believe me, it works! Or we could at least give it a try with a few pages?
The vision might be that they would at the very least be ready to be printed in newspapers all over the world, in no time, on day one of the pandemic. If it gets downloaded before that, then people will have more time to stock up on salt, sugar, etc.
I think maybe you should give some thought to the license of the work. Specifically, you should authorise “derivative work” without hassle to those doing it - maybe they’ll surprise us all when they turn the booklet into videos, tapes, games with toys, simulation videogames and what not. As long as the information is acurate, common sense, with a reference to the original so that anyone can check for quality and accuracy, then this might be a good idea.
And it’s not just translations - it’s also adaptation: in many places they will use local plants instead of what pharmaceutical companies provide us rich people with. Many will use “simple masks” (I’ll find the link later) instead of N95 masks. Some will not have ice and will do with alcohol frictions or whatever.
Also, I think maybe half or more of your booklet is useful for diarrhea (dehydratation) so it could be used straight away in many countries where there’s already a problem with that.
Too many ideas for just one posting? :-)
Please let me give you a big THANK YOU. Common sense will take us all a long way!
The interest in translating this document into languages other than English is a very interesting prospect. Good Home Treatment for Influenza is a simple document. One objective in writing it was to avoid the use of medical jargon. For the most part, it is written for those with a 10th grade reading level. These features make its translation into other languages an easier task. The word count is just over 10,700.
Translating this document into and many languages as possible and making them widely available would be a valuable service to people worldwide. Maybe this could become a FluWiki community project? A non-medical bilingual speaker could accomplish translation as long as we had a medical person conversant with the language proof the document before it was made available.
Grattan Woodson, MD, FACP
The Doctor: People who do not even know you will be grateful for your contributions. Please stay in touch.
Dr Woodson, thanks for your reply at 19:57. I have been looking for this thread for several days! :)
We have at least two ways to make it a community project:
I won’t start without your approval. It’s a copyrighted piece of work!
Please write to me: lugon at singtomeohmuse dot com. Thanks!
Dr. Woodson, you said it can be frustrating to be one of the few that see the risk and that seems to be the case with some physicians. This forum has lots of anecdotal accounts of primary care physuicians not fully apprised of the risks. What articles or material would you recommend for sharing with our community health care providers to help get them up to speed?
Al, last March went to my GP, he was very knowledgable about what would happen if Pandemic strikes, gave him printouts of Dr. Woodson’s book, why he recommended that Doctors give their patients Tamiflu to have pre-pandemic, all for naught. Saw him again last week, told him that I obtained Tamiflu, anti-biotics etc., he thought that was a good idea, but he still will not prescribe these or any other meds. Very frustrating. While some of these things are available on line, others are not. Hopefully the ones I have are genuine. Good luck with your at bat!
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