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It looked like a scene from one of the apocalyptic movies which usually appear on the big screen, but in reality it was as close as your nearby hospital. It has been reported that the Dell hospital in Texas has been forced to erect and operate from large tents due to the influx of flu patients.

Although all the hospitals in central Texas are registering an increase in patients displaying flu like symptoms doctors admit that it is particularly sever at Dell Children’s Medical Center.

The tents are currently open to the public only on Tuesday morning with an expected patient clientele of approximately 300 per day. When questioned both the medical professionals and the staff admit that this is merely the tip of the iceberg. They warn that we are in for a very busy flu season this year.

The biggest problem and concern is the waiting time and it is hoped that the tents will cut this time drastically. In the past patients have had to wait for as many as four hours before being seen by a staff professional. Many of the patients come to the hospital because their normal doctor’s office is booked up and has no openings at all. You can barely get into the doors of the tents as there are so many people waiting. A glance around the facility reveals that many of the patients waiting to see the doctors all display similar symptoms. To most parents here the high fevers approaching 102 or 103 degrees causes’ great alarm and fears of the child having the H1N1 flu are widespread.

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Often you see staff walking around the tents with surgical masks on in an effort not to spread or catch the illness which is an indication that we are still experiencing a degree of panic in most communities when confronted with this disease. The hospital has indicated that the tents will remain for as long as necessary since more then half the patients tested have resulted in positive results for H1N1 virus.

Although the government is expecting a vaccine to be available for H1N1 around the beginning of October there are conflicting comments regarding its safety. In fact it has been stated that children under 12 years of age will need two doses of the vaccine. All we can do now is sit and wait. In the meantime if you want to learn more about this disease and what you can do to protect yourself you should check out your favorite internet search engine.