The new website, AMAfluhelp.org, now offers information about seasonal and H1N1 pandemic flu. The site offers advice on when to seek a doctor’s help. Healthy Circles, a personal health record provider is behind the new, free interactive website featuring real doctors that will answer questions about flu symptoms. It has just been started by the American Medical Association, built with partners such as Microsoft. Also see the site, "Healthy Circles HealthVault Free PHR – Personal Health Record."
The purpose of the website is to help out the flood of calls to doctors from anxious parents worried about their child’s flu symptoms but are unable to risk a visit to a germ-infested waiting room. If your child is nauseated, there’s no way you are going to drag a child too sick to sit up into your car and drive to a medical office unless the child is so sick that hospitalization is needed in an emergency situation, such as your child being in respiratory distress or convulsing with possible encephalitis symptoms.
If it’s flu symptoms you want to ask about, try the website. Doctors will communicate with you throught he site. In the future, the site will allow doctors to prescribe routine medications online. The question is without looking at lab results, how do you really know the child has the flu? Apparently, the site can help identify children or adults needing treatment. The purpose of the interactive site is to keep healthy people and people sick with the flu from mingling in waiting rooms.
Before a doctor prescribes any routine medications, the flu guidelines sheet put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are consulted. But remember, a lot of other infections can start with flu-like symptoms, especially step throats. For further information, check out the latest October 22nd, 2009 Reuters article, "US Doctor Answer Questions on New Website." Other sites with information on the flu that are not interactive include the CDC.gov site and flu.gov. For further information, the new, interactive website answering questions is at: AMAfluhelp.org.
Photo credits: American Medical Association (AMA).
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