Fighting flu, Richmond-area hospitals will restrict visiting to adults

SPECIAL REPORT: Swine Flu

Starting Monday, metropolitan Richmond hospitals will restrict visiting to try to curb the spread of swine flu.

In what they described as an unprecedented level of cooperation, the 12 acute-care hospitals in the Richmond and Tri-Cities region all will limit visitors in patient-care areas to healthy adults who are 18 and older, and allow only two adults to visit a patient at one time.

Though generally mild so far in its effect on victims, the H1N1 influenza virus is raging at record levels throughout the state, and young people are particularly susceptible to the disease.

"Young children who are healthy should not be taken to places where they could be exposed to people who are unhealthy and the children who are infected could spread it," said Dr. Marsh Cuttino with HCA Virginia Health System.

Children and young adults also are the H1N1 virus' most common carriers. "They are cute little [disease] vectors," said Cuttino, an emergency-medicine specialist.

Hospital officials already have begun separating flu sufferers from other patients coming to their emergency rooms. Virginia Commonwealth University's MCV Hospitals have set up two environmentally controlled tents in the emergency department to contain possible exposure to the flu.

A ninth person has died of the disease in Virginia, the state Health Department reported yesterday. The victim, from the Danville-Pittsylvania County area, was an adult male with underlying health problems, a department spokeswoman said.

Central Virginia's regional hospitals will allow only limited exceptions to the ban on young visitors. For example, the hospitals said in a joint statement, young people would be permitted to be with dying relatives and new fathers younger than 18 could see their children.

The limited-visitation policy will remain in effect through flu season and at least until March, the hospitals said.

"I applaud this coordinated effort by Richmond-area hospitals to protect their patients, visitors and health-care providers," Dr. Karen Remley, the state's health commissioner, said in a statement. "This approach to infection prevention will help maximize safety for everyone."

Outpatient clinics are not affected by the restriction, VCU spokeswoman Pamela Lepley said, and children who need to be hospitalized will be.

"We're really talking about people who are visiting a patient and bringing children along with them," she said of the visiting restriction.

Most hospitals across the state similarly are banning unnecessary visits by young people, said Dr. Mark Levine, deputy state health commissioner.

Hospitals are depending on the public to comply with the visiting restrictions. "The community needs to police itself," Cuttino said. "They have to be partners in that."

Health officials do not know how many of the state's 7.4 million residents have been infected by the potentially lethal strain of flu, but people with flulike illnesses now make up 13.5 percent of emergency-department and urgent-care visits, Remley said.

HCA's six Richmond-area hospitals are experiencing a 42 percent increase in emergency-room visits compared with the same time last year, HCA spokeswoman Karen Nelson said.

With so many people thronging emergency departments, Cuttino said, "it's making it difficult to get the sick patients, who desire emergency treatment, seen."

School absenteeism is running at 10 percent to 30 percent across Virginia, Remley said. Not all of those absences necessarily are attributable to influenza.

"The majority of patients are concerned more than they are actually ill," Cuttino said of flu sufferers.

Most people with flu, including H1N1 influenza, do not require medical care, the state Health Department said. "The flu disease is not worse than ordinary, or seasonal, flu," Levine said.

"The thing that is concerning is the flu season never went away," Levine said. "It's October 21, and we're seeing levels of flu we normally see in February or March. It could be a very long flu season."

The H1N1 flu mostly has been mild in the general population, health officials said. People with a usual case of seasonal or swine flu can treat their symptoms at home by resting, taking acetaminophen or ibuprofen to reduce fever, and drinking fluids.

However, individuals should seek medical care immediately if they have difficulty breathing, chest pain or an altered mental state, such as confusion. When in doubt, they should call their health-care providers for advice.

The best way for people to prevent the flu is to cover their coughs and sneezes and wash their hands often.

H1N1 flu vaccine will be available for the general public in mid-November, the Health Department said. So far, 319,400 doses of H1N1 vaccine have come to, or are on the way to, the state.

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .