H1N1

H1N1 has arrived in the Czech Republic. This is a bit more complicated for my clinic than for a clinic in the United States. For one thing, I don’t have H1N1 vaccines. They were ordered months ago for the Foreign Service, but only a tiny fraction has actually been delivered to the Department of State for its overseas staff. I have 20 people who fall into the CDC’s high-risk group and should be vaccinated; some of them are anxious because the vaccine is not available.

The Czech Republic has vaccine only for a limited number of their residents, and they have purchased Pandemrix, which is not FDA approved, so I wouldn’t be able to use it anyway. I do have Tamiflu and Relenza and use them when appropriate. Although we have had employees diagnosed with H1N1, so far, none have been serious, and we are doing our best to keep it that way.

We’ve been busy educating all staff members at the embassy, including local employees who fall under the Czech health system. I’ve tried to impress on everyone that this is a public health issue and not just a private health concern. I’ve delivered information in e-mails, handouts and personal group sessions with the different offices, but the most successful campaign has been the use of a video prepared by the Virginia Department of Health. Whoever thought this up is a genius!

In 2007, when “bird flu” was all the rage, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan was seeing a large bird die-off on the embassy compound. My clinic arranged for some of these birds—all crows—to be evaluated at a poultry lab and, sure enough, they died of H5N1. At that time, there had been no animal-to-person transmission of avian influenza in Pakistan, but having these multitudes of bird carcasses around the compound was unsettling to people, and a minor crisis was evolving.

Our facilities manager called me one afternoon to announce that a sick hawk was on the compound and asked me what to do. “Leave it alone,” was my sage advice. For the next three hours, I received update calls as this poor bird experienced his death throes! When he finally did expire, he was refrigerated and sent to the poultry lab for diagnosis. He tested negative for H5N1, so they performed an autopsy! Cause of death: pathogenic E-coli. If Mr. Hawk had come to the health unit for his check-in orientation, he would have known to boil it, cook it, peel it or leave it, essential food sanitation advice in Pakistan, and he might still be soaring in the skies!

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership, published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.