In a typical year, approximately 5 to 20 percent of the population gets the seasonal flu. For most people, the flu is a passing virus that makes you feel terrible for several days, but for some it can be more serious and require hospitalization. In fact, earlier this year a Cary High School student died […]
A few weeks ago I was approached by a teacher at an elementary school whose student been coughing for weeks and had been tested for whooping cough. She was concerned about the other students in the class being exposed to whooping cough, but was quite surprised when I explained that she and her teaching assistant […]
Predicting the pattern for an upcoming flu season can be challenging. While this fall showed promise for a mild season, the number of patients in our emergency departments with flu or flu-like illness is now increasing rapidly, suggesting that perhaps the worst is yet to come. Beginning the first of December and climbing within the […]
Robin Carver, RN, is WakeMed‘s director of infection prevention & control. Salmonella infection generally does not cause serious illness, but it does cause uncomfortable gastrointestinal symptoms and can occasionally be fatal in infants, people with compromised immune systems and the elderly primarily due to dehydration. To date, 11 salmonella cases have been reported in North Carolina, but […]
Robin Carver, RN, serves as WakeMed’s director of infection control. According to the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NCDPH), there has been a recent increase in gastrointestinal illness across the state due to norovirus. Highly contagious, this virus can infect someone who ingests only 10 particles of virus. That is smaller than the head […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.