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Buddy up to help 'vulnerable' during flu pandemic
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Canada's public health agency is urging Canadians to identify a "flu buddy" willing to help care for them should they get sick with human swine flu this fall.5 t6 X& Y4 @9 }; b8 v2 ?5 y
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The Public Health Agency of Canada told Canwest News Service that Canadians should "talk with family, friends and neighbours and figure out how you might help each other during the H1N1 pandemic."
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7 @* K9 x O0 ]% X0 }4 ~"Identify elderly or vulnerable relatives, friends and neighbours who may need your help," the agency said in a statement to Canwest.
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& q+ s9 L$ W( @2 k8 L, G1 f"During a pandemic outbreak, keep an eye on these people, especially those living alone and phone them if you suspect they might be ill."
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Officials said the department will launch the next phase of its "Citizen Readiness Campaign" this fall with a major public information campaign that will focus on family preparedness plans, immunization and keeping stockpiles of prescription medication, non-perishable food and water.
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According to Statistics Canada, there were about 2,018,000 single or lone-parent families in Canada in 2007. In 2006, 3,327,050 people were living alone.' r7 k8 @9 `2 ?# y- s1 O$ k
$ H5 n( B' l8 B$ ~; ?Historical data suggests that, during a pandemic, more than 50 per cent of a population may become infected with the novel virus, according to Canada's pandemic influenza plan.9 s! s! w- j- o4 D' L
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Dr. Noni MacDonald, a leading pediatric infectious disease expert, said the World Health Organization has recommended a flu buddy system.
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1 Y' w$ S" R. c* j) D; K"We've never done anything like this in Canada, and I think H1N1 is going to teach us that we absolutely need to do something like this," said MacDonald, a member of the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology in Halifax and former dean of medicine at Dalhousie University.
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If single parents, or adults living alone, get sick with the flu, "you won't be sick enough, likely, to go to hospital, but you are not necessarily going to be well enough to go to the drugstore to buy some Tylenol, you're not going to be well enough to check if you need to be driven to the emergency. You won't be well enough to do that.
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"We cannot overwhelm our system by having everybody call 911 and say: 'I'm really sick, I need to go the hospital' when you don't. You need to organize, in your community, who is going to be your flu buddy," she said.* `; V5 H! t! g' Y) Q! v0 Q
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"Who is going to phone to make sure you're well, and check up on you? Who is going to be able to go and get you a prescription, or get you some juices?"
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Some people infected with swine flu have arrived at hospital dehydrated, "and that has made some of the serious illnesses worse in some of the patients who have had bad H1N1.$ F" B0 U5 ^: b2 h
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"The disaster planning that we've done — those big ads we have on TV about having your flashlight batteries and all of that — is if this is an external disaster, as opposed to a health disaster," MacDonald said.9 l% B" `, E' G
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"It's a matter of saying, all right, what do I need to have in my cupboard if I get sick? Am I going to have my juices that I need, am I going to have my Tylenol, and I going to have Kleenex. All this stuff, I need ahead of time." |
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