27 Jul, 09 | by julietwalker
If you’re pregnant lock yourself in the house, shut the curtains and wear a facemask if you so much as put your nose outside the door… has advice to pregnant women finally gone too far? Or, given that at least six healthy women in their second and third trimesters of pregnancy are reported to be in intensive care with pandemic flu in Australia is this reasonable advice?
27 Jul, 09 | by julietwalker
A pandemic of panic
A “panic pandemic” is worsening the crisis in the UK said health ministers over the weekend. Andy Burnham, the health secretary, told The Observer of the need for people to keep a sense of perspective.
“If people are made unnecessarily anxious, it makes the lives of NHS professionals, who are already under enormous pressure, far more difficult as people become unduly worried.”
His plea was backed up by the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Professor Terence Stephenson: more…
22 Jul, 09 | by julietwalker
20 Jul, 09 | by julietwalker
Government deliver new advice for pregnant women
A storm erupted over the weekend about the government’s advice to pregnant women on swine flu. It all started with the National Childbirth Trust issuing advice that suggested that women consider delaying conception, as their director Belinda Phipps explains: more…
20 Jul, 09 | by julietwalker
I’m fed up of being told not to panic over swine flu. If I want to panic then I’ll panic. I’ll run naked and screaming down the street imploring my neighbours to do the same.
But then I realise that I don’t know what exactly you do when you panic. Do you turn to jelly, burst into tears, take to your bed, shoot yourself? I’d better look in the dictionary, especially as there presumably won’t be time for that when I do decide to panic. more…
17 Jul, 09 | by julietwalker
Yesterday was a busy day for swine flu in the UK. First we learnt that 65,000 people could die from it in the UK if the government’s worst case scenario predictions come true. That’s three times more than the excess deaths during the 1999/2000 winter flu season and double the number in the two previous global pandemics in 1957-8 and 1968-9.
14 Jul, 09 | by BMJ Group
After reading my colleagues’ comments on the discussion fora of the harmfulness of playing our ace too soon, I bear the shame of being one of those low-risk (fairly) fit, (relatively) young people with a mild self-limiting viral illness who is consuming the precious stocks of Tamiflu and probably helping develop the resistant strains which will eventually create a true disaster.
What can I say? I didn’t really mean to cause any harm. That is, I excused myself from work at the first peak of pyrexia above 38 degrees and went home to protect my fellow staff and patients. I contacted my GP, or rather one of his partners as he himself was undoubtedly busy on the other line to another flu enquirer. more…
14 Jul, 09 | by julietwalker
Yesterday it was announced that Dr Michael Day, a GP from Bedfordshire, died from H1N1 influenza. A 6 year old girl has also died. Neither are believed to have had any serious underlying health problems
The news of a GP’s death will surely send a shudder down the spine of many healthcare workers. Should this be a wake up call for doctors to start taking this virus more seriously? Should doctors and others be taking more precautions than they are at present? more…
10 Jul, 09 | by julietwalker
Yesterday, reporters descended on Whitehall to hear about the methods of influenza monitoring. Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer led the numbers feast alongside Justin McCracken, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency, and Ian Dalton, the new flu czar.
Sir Liam explained what data are being tracked: total number of cases, antiviral usage, hospitalisations and deaths (see pyramid, below). more…
7 Jul, 09 | by julietwalker
Yesterday the number of deaths in the UK rose to seven. So far all of those who have died with H1N1 in the UK have had serious underlying health conditions and little information has been released about whether these people have died with H1N1 or because of it.
Meanwhile the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that $1 billion will be needed by the end of the year to fight swine flu, and Bolivia is considering closing its border with Argentina if the disease ‘expands’ (as it undoubtedly will). more…
