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Health officials predict H1N1 will get more serious!

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  • Health officials predict H1N1 will get more serious!

    Health officials predict H1N1 will get more serious!

    Written By: Kayra Williamson
    Sep 23rd, 2009

    Regular formalities like handshakes or even friendly hugs or kisses have been abandoned by most St Lucians in an effort to stay ?Swine Flu? free. Paranoia levels among most have shot through the roof ever since an emergency meeting with local health officials revealed that H1N1 was spreading rapidly on the island with at least one school in the north being closed as a result. Now, public concern is more centered on where one can stock up on the supposed antiviral drug for H1N1, Tami Flu.

    But senior medical officer Merlene Frederick at yet another H1N1 emergency conference on September 21, at the Ministry of Health said: ?Tami Flu is not a wonder drug.? Further the senior medical officer said Tami Flu would not likely be given to patients with mild forms of H1N1 but would be reserved for severe cases like those seen in high-risk patients. Those with underlying conditions like asthma and sickle cell that are more prone to progressing to a more severe form of H1N1.

    The September 21st conference was called to make public progressions by the health ministry in terms of the island?s response to the flu outbreak. Chief medical officer Josiah Rambally announced that flu clinics would be introduced on Wednesday in specific areas to deal with suspected H1N1 patients. Given the rapid transmission of H1N1, the move would deal with something that has been a top concern for anyone who?s been to hospitals or health care centres on island and has had to sit in the waiting room with suspected H1N1 patients.

    ?It is more than just a ministry of health plan; it is a national influenza plan,? said Merlene Frederick. ? . . . We realized that we were seeing many flu cases, that we would designate certain health centers, certain places as flu clinics. So that you wouldn?t have this mixing that you?re having going on right now where persons with flu like symptoms come and sit alongside a pregnant person who?s coming for antenatal care.?

    There would be separate clinics in predetermined locations for persons with flu-like symptoms and non-flu cases. Starting Wednesday this week, the Castries Health Centre will be a flu clinic.

    ?All non-flu cases; diabetics, persons with skin rashes, any little trauma, a busted toe or something like that, those people are encouraged to go to the Entrepot Health Centre.?

    Frederick said the coverage at the Entrepot Health Centre would be increased and the Health Centre would be opened daily. Previously Entrepot?s health facility opened for only one clinic a week. Similarly, in region one the Gros Islet Polyclinic non-emergency section would be a designated flu centre while other cases would be seen in the Polyclinic?s emergency centre. In region seven, the Anse La Raye/ Canaries area, the La Croix Maingot Health Centre would be made into a flu clinic. Health Centres like those in Vannard, Anse La Raye and Jacmel would be non-flu clinics.

    ?I know it?s going to be difficult for people at first to get used to it but it will be best,? Frederick said adding that persons with flu symptoms who went to the flu clinics would be able to see a doctor faster than anywhere else.

    The CMO noted that H1N1 had brought and early start to the flu season and revealed that H1N1 had been confirmed in most of the clusters of flu like symptoms that had been investigated on island.

    ?Persons may become infected with influenza when they inhale or breathe in droplets form another person, who coughs or sneezes within three to six feet away from them,? Rambally noted. ?H1N1, like the regular flu can also be passed on by touching infected surfaces, like doorknobs, and then touching your nose or face. That?s why we?ve been stressing on hand washing.?

    While health official reiterated that most cases were mild, senior medical officer Merlene Frederick said there?d been a few people hospitalised. Frederick also said there were ?quite a few cases in school-aged children of vomiting and diarrhea rather than the cough and cold usual flu symptom.?

    ?We are fortunate in St Lucia as to date we have had no deaths from H1N1,? she said. ?Some persons have it and they don?t even realize that they are ill because it?s probably just a little sore throat which would go away in a day or two. All persons who?ve been hospitalized have recovered well.?

    At that point the senior medical officer dropped the dreaded bombshell. Like the two predictions she?d made before, one of the inevitability of H1N1 reaching local shores and the possible threat of an outbreak when schools opened in September, Frederick said, ?as the number of cases grow, we need to be ready we may have some more serious cases.

    ?We have confirmed cases in adults as well as children,? said Frederick. ?Practically every school which has flu cases, we have at least one or two students in those schools who have been confirmed H1N1.?

    To parents the senior medical officer said: ?If children are still ill after a week they should stay home. Go to the doctor to be assessed, don?t just send them back to school
    because school is re opening. The same applies to teachers.?

    As for limiting the flu clinics to the north of the island, the senior medical officer said most of the H1N1 cases were focused in the northern, more populated part of the island.

    ?From Anse La Raye up to Gros Islet,? said Frederick. ?We do have cases in the south but the extent is not as great at this point in time. There is a plan and if needs be, we will be opening flu centres in the south but at this point in time it isn?t really warranted given the situation.?

    At the end of the conference, health officials noted that flu clinic visits were free.

    "Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."
    -Nelson Mandela
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