Free Flu-Prevention Wallet Card Available From Bridgeport Hospital

BRIDGEPORT — With another flu season on the way, Bridgeport Hospital and its partners in the Yale New Haven Health System are offering a free flu-prevention wallet card. The card is available by calling toll free, 888-357-2396.

The wallet card, titled “PSST!” for Protect, Signs, Symptoms and Treat, lists recognizable flu symptoms, information on treating flu at home, and ways people can protect themselves from infection.

The card was created by the Yale New Haven Center for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response (CEPDR) and may be the first personal influenza wallet card in the United States outlining precautionary steps and treatment guidelines for the general public against an outbreak of influenza.

CEPDR is focusing more attention on personal influenza preparedness amid growing worldwide concern over avian (bird) flu. The wallet card is seen as a way to ease public fear of an outbreak, and to allow people to take control, protect themselves, and help limit the spread of infection.

 “We developed this wallet card as a useful tool in coping with any flu, not only bird flu,” said CEPDR Associate Medical Director Louise Dembry, MD. “There are steps people can take to prevent contracting influenza, and our best defense is to learn how and make these practices a part of everyday life.”

For more information about bird flu, visit BridgeportHospital.com and click on the link at the lower left of the home page.