The U.S. is bracing for as many as 1.8 million hospital admissions for flu as students return to school and cases surge to unprecedented levels, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden said.
"We generally expect that flu will go up after it starts, but this is really something we haven't seen before," Frieden said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union program. "It's very unusual to see it start to increase this rapidly in August and September."
President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reported that as much as half of the U.S. population could become infected with swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, leading to as many as 90,000 deaths.
Middle Tennessee hospitals began preparing in the spring for large numbers of H1N1 infections, stocking up on medical supplies, instituting visitor policies to stop the spread and working out worst-case-scenario staffing schedules.
Comment By Mindy
I had to go to the emergency room at Summit on Saturday night and they had admitted at least 6 people with the flu just while I sat their. They offer masks when you walk in. Everything in the waiting room was not cleaned while I was there. What happened to the days of Lysol? What makes it worse ( I have been to Summit Hospital a few different times in the last 6 months to check or admit friends) and the Dr's and Nurses do not wash their hands when they come into your room and again when they leave the room as the are supposed to.
I had to get stitches this time and the EMT put on gloves and I said thank you. He said I always use gloves. Then the nurse came in to clean out my wound and give me my checkout paper. She grabbed my hand (which was an open cut) and I said no gloves or no washing your hands, she looked at me like huh? I said well, I have an open cut and I have no idea who you have just been with..
I am not trying to scare people, I just want everyone to be careful and stay healthy!
Ok, yes as a child my mother would lysol eveything!!
Hope you are all having a great Holiday Weekend!
