September 27, 2023 : Two Items on the Agenda for Today's Committee Meeting
© 安岡喜晴 (JoyShine)
There are two items on the agenda for today's committee meeting.
First, emergency response to a head injury from a fall.
First, check the patient's level of consciousness.
Ask them the following questions;
Where are you now?
What is the date today?
And tell them a three-digit number and have them say it backwards.
If they cannot answer any of these questions correctly, call an ambulance immediately.
Next, check for breathing. If there is no breathing, start BLS immediately.
Do not move their neck until the emergency medical team arrives;
they will immobilize their neck and take them to the hospital. Do not move them until then.
If vomit appears to be blocking the airway, place the patient in the recovery position without moving the neck as much as possible.
Symptoms often appear within 6 hours of the injury,
but they can appear as late as 24 hours, or in some rare cases, 2 or 3 days, weeks, or months after the injury,
so do not hesitate to go to the hospital if you notice any unusual symptoms.
The next topic was the status of flu infections.
Some people find it strange that the flu is prevalent throughout the year.
But it is not really strange.
Since the manufacturing process for influenza vaccine involves incubation of the virus at approximately 34 degrees Celsius for two days in order to multiply,
it is expected that the incidence of influenza will increase as the temperature rises.
However, because flu can be spread by both air and droplets, airborne infection predominates as humidity decreases, and droplet infection predominates as humidity increases.
Airborne infection is more contagious than droplet infection.
In addition, as humidity decreases and the air becomes drier, the barrier function of the human respiratory mucosa decreases.
This tug-of-war between incidence, infectivity and respiratory mucosal barrier function determines whether an epidemic occurs or not.
It is not always determined by a simple factor of decrease with warmer weather and increase with colder weather.
Therefore, it is not surprising that flu is prevalent during the hot season.
In fact, flu occurs throughout the year in tropical regions.
This summer in Japan was the hottest in recorded history.
Therefore, it would not be surprising if there were a flu epidemic in Japan in the middle of the summer.