Infectious specialists suggest twice a year flu shots

SANTO DOMINGO. The members of the Dominican Society of Infectious Medicine recommended yesterday to the authorities of the Ministry of Public Health to prepare exclusive areas for hospitalization for critical patients which will guarantee the isolation from other patients as a way to avoid possible contamination.

In addition, they want the authorities to provide masks and protective goggles for the health workers. They also call for the medical personnel to provide close monitoring and to be alert for all of those that present the symptoms of the virus, such as difficulty in breathing, cough, and more than three days with a high fever among other signs.

The Dominican Society of Infectious Medicine said that were willing to work with the authorities in order to guide the health personnel regarding how to treat the illness.

The president of the entity, Dr. Margarita Santana Chalas, recommended that the population should not be alarmed and that they should learn how to deal with the AH1N1 influenza virus.

She explained that the majority of the attacks of the grippe are short term, and they are taken care of within three to five days after the illness begins.

Likewise, she assured reporters that the laboratory tests to confirm the presence of the influenza virus are not needed and that they should be done by the Ministry of Public Health in order to track the circulation of the virus and the risks for the population.

Regarding the vaccination, she suggests the integration each year into the Expanded Program of Immunization of the vaccine against the flu for the groups at the highest risks and the personnel that work in the health centers, especially those that receive patients in out-patients visits and in Emergency Rooms, as well as the intensivists.

She recalled that the vaccines against the virus should be applied in the middle of the fall, before the onset of winter.

The reason is that the country has two periods of flu activity each year: one in the winter, when they receive tourists from Europe, the United States and Canada, and the other in the summer, when visitor come from the Southern Cone.