The Sick Room
In Home Care for Pandemic Flu

Isolate the Patient for In Home Care

• Isolate in a special room - To protect everyone from swine flu , you need to separate the patient from the rest of the family. Designate one room to be the “sick room”. Ideally this could be a spare bedroom with its own bathroom.
  
  

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  Decisions are very hard to make when you are taking care of someone at home. You can feel very isolated and alone.

  If you have a question that you would like to have answered, you can ask a legitimate doctor with credentials, online, by using doctors online advice . You usually get a personal answer within minutes.

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  Photo courtesy of Herve Kerneis
  
  

  This patient room for the ill person should be away from the common areas of the home. Keep the door closed on this room. Isolating your patient also helps your patient get rest and sleep – which she needs to get well.

  You and your family need to practice what is known as social distancing.

• Bathroom - It is best if the patient has his own bathroom—to keep the H1N1 flu virus germs away from other family members. The sick room and all bathrooms should be cleaned daily with disinfectants or household bleach to kill virus germs .

• NO Visitors - No matter what, there should be no visitors to your home if you have a family member sick with pandemic flu. That includes visitors to see other members of the family.

  Family members who have been exposed to the influenza virus could be carriers or they could be coming down with the virus—but not showing symptoms yet. In either case, visitors will be exposed if they come to your home.

  The CDC believes that people exposed to swine flu, h1n1, are contagious from 1 day before they have symptoms to 7 days after they get sick.

  The rule for the “sick room” is NO VISITORS - that includes family members and pets.

• One Caregiver - If, at all possible, limit the people who enter a sick room to just one (or two) caregiver. Only the caregiver should enter the “sick room” and then, only after taking the proper precautions.

  Avoid having a pregnant woman take care of a sick person. During pregnancy, a woman's immune system is weakened. And pregnant women who get pandemic influenza are far more likely to have serious complications, including death.

• Follow infection control procedures - when you go into and out of the sick room.

• Patient masks - Have the person with the flu wear a face mask (nano mask or N95) if he must be a common area of the home or if he has to go outside the home (for medical care).

• Fresh air - The CDC recommends opening windows in common areas like kitchen, bathroom, etc. Fresh air can also be healthy for a sick person, as long as it is not too cold outside.

Setting up the sick room is not difficult. If everything is not perfect at your house, do the best that you can, using what you have.

Mainly, make sure that your patient is kept away from others as much as possible. If you have to use the same area (bathroom, for example), make sure that area is cleaned often to kill any flu virus germs.

More on Patient Care at Home

• In Home Care
• Keep a Medical Record
• Flu Treatment for Specific Symptoms
• Hospital Care

Infection Control at Home

• N95 Respirator Mask
• Surgical Mask
• Nano Face Mask
• Video - How to Use a Face Mask Properly
• Flu Prevention for In Home Care
• Home Hygiene
• Hand Washing
• How to Wash Hands
• When to Wash Hands
• Infection Control
• How to Kill Virus Germs