About 30 patients visited St. John Medical Center’s emergency room with flu-like symptoms in a 24-hour period earlier this week, and hospital officials have one message for them: Unless your symptoms are severe, please stay away — from work and the doctor’s office.

“If you feel that you’re getting sick with the flu, chances are you’re sick with the flu,” Andrew Robottom, clinical manager for the hospital’s emergency department, said Wednesday. “If you don’t have the flu, you’ve just come to the place where you’re most likely to catch it.”

Robottom said people are coming to the emergency room asking to be tested for H1N1 influenza — swine flu. But the hospital is using the same guidelines as the county, state and federal health departments. Only those patients with symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization will be tested, he said.

In addition to asking to be tested for H1N1, some patients are coming to the emergency department asking for tamiflu, an antiviral medicine that can diminish the effects or length of the illness.

“We’re really reserving the tamiflu for the seriously ill and high-risk patients, Robottom said. “For the rest of us, it’s all about Tylenol, fluids, chicken soup, staying home. Yes, for a week you’ll feel like you’ve been run over by a truck, but you will get better.”

To avoid the flu, Robottom and other health officials strongly urge people to get flu vaccines.

“I would encourage everybody to get the seasonal flu vaccine, and when it becomes available, get the H1N1 vaccine,” he said.

The H1N1 vaccine should be available in Southwest Washington this month, according to the Cowlitz County Health Department.

Unless you need urgent medical care, the health department suggests you phone first rather than going directly to a doctor’s office, clinic or hospital.

“Your health care provider will determine if you need to be seen or treated for your symptoms,” the health department’s new H1N1 Web site says. “If you are sick, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people as much as possible to keep from spreading your illness to others.”

Health and hospital officials recommend the following precautions to reduce the spread of H1N1 as well as other influenza and cold viruses:

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.

• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners also are effective.

• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

• If you are sick, remain at home until you are free from fever (100 degrees or higher) for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medicine.

For more information, call the Cowlitz County Health Department hotline at (877) 510-2772 or visit www.flunewsswwashington.org