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Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-23289,00.html
Flu-hit pregnant teen sent home
Natasha Bita | August 03, 2009
Article from: The Australian
A PREGNANT teenager infected with swine flu was sent home from hospital just a few hours before she went into premature labour, doctors revealed yesterday.
The Medical Journal of Australia reports that the 18-year-old - who was nearly seven months pregnant - had been vomiting, coughing and burning with fever for four days before fronting up to an unnamed hospital in a northwestern suburb of Melbourne.
A dose of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu was "discussed with the patient, but not administered".
"After intravenous rehydration, she was discharged home, but she returned several hours later in premature labour," the report says.
The teenager was dosed with steroids to help develop her baby's immature lungs, and transferred to an obstetric hospital where she gave birth to a 26-week-old baby.
Twenty-four hours later she was admitted to intensive care with respiratory failure, and tested positive to swine flu.
Her baby was cleared of swine flu, but both were treated with Tamiflu and antibiotics.
The teenager is the second pregnant woman known to have been sent home from hospital despite suspected swine flu.
The Australian revealed last month that a heavily pregnant 19-year-old, Alma Palma, lost her unborn baby and fell into a coma after Palm Island hospital staff sent her home with a packet of Panadol. Ms Palma has recovered, but her 36-week-old child was stillborn.
The latest case is revealed in a study - written by doctors at the Northern Hospital, Western Hospital and Austin Hospital of Melbourne - outlining the first six cases of swine flu in Australia in which patients were admitted to intensive care, in June.
It found that four of the six patients had "risk factors" including asthma, chronic lung disease, smoking, obesity and pregnancy - but two other seemed otherwise healthy.
The study concludes that the benefits of the early use of anti-viral therapy for pregnant women "may outweigh the risks".
The swine flu pandemic has killed 64 Australians, infected at least 21,752 and landed 2555 patients in hospital since the first case was detected in May. More than 400 people remain in hospital - with 107 in intensive care.
The World Health Organisation has warned that women in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy are at "increased risk" of complications from swine flu - including miscarriage and stillbirth.
It recommends they be given Tamiflu within 48 hours of the onset of flu-like symptoms, and be made a priority group for immunisation once a vaccine becomes available.
"While pregnant women are also at increased risk during epidemics of seasonal flu, the risk takes on added importance in the current pandemic, which continues to affect a younger age group than that seen during seasonal epidemics," WHO reports in its latest briefing note.
WHO's immunisation experts have urged that health workers and pregnant women be given priority vaccinations.
But in their report to WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record, they urge international co-operation to monitor any side-effects of vaccines being rushed on to the market.
"Since some vaccines may be licensed solely on the basis of product quality data, implementation of post-marketing surveillance of the highest possible quality was identified as essential," the immunisation panel reports.
"Particular attention should be paid to pregnant women who have been vaccinated and to their babies."
Flu-hit pregnant teen sent home
Natasha Bita | August 03, 2009
Article from: The Australian
A PREGNANT teenager infected with swine flu was sent home from hospital just a few hours before she went into premature labour, doctors revealed yesterday.
The Medical Journal of Australia reports that the 18-year-old - who was nearly seven months pregnant - had been vomiting, coughing and burning with fever for four days before fronting up to an unnamed hospital in a northwestern suburb of Melbourne.
A dose of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu was "discussed with the patient, but not administered".
"After intravenous rehydration, she was discharged home, but she returned several hours later in premature labour," the report says.
The teenager was dosed with steroids to help develop her baby's immature lungs, and transferred to an obstetric hospital where she gave birth to a 26-week-old baby.
Twenty-four hours later she was admitted to intensive care with respiratory failure, and tested positive to swine flu.
Her baby was cleared of swine flu, but both were treated with Tamiflu and antibiotics.
The teenager is the second pregnant woman known to have been sent home from hospital despite suspected swine flu.
The Australian revealed last month that a heavily pregnant 19-year-old, Alma Palma, lost her unborn baby and fell into a coma after Palm Island hospital staff sent her home with a packet of Panadol. Ms Palma has recovered, but her 36-week-old child was stillborn.
The latest case is revealed in a study - written by doctors at the Northern Hospital, Western Hospital and Austin Hospital of Melbourne - outlining the first six cases of swine flu in Australia in which patients were admitted to intensive care, in June.
It found that four of the six patients had "risk factors" including asthma, chronic lung disease, smoking, obesity and pregnancy - but two other seemed otherwise healthy.
The study concludes that the benefits of the early use of anti-viral therapy for pregnant women "may outweigh the risks".
The swine flu pandemic has killed 64 Australians, infected at least 21,752 and landed 2555 patients in hospital since the first case was detected in May. More than 400 people remain in hospital - with 107 in intensive care.
The World Health Organisation has warned that women in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy are at "increased risk" of complications from swine flu - including miscarriage and stillbirth.
It recommends they be given Tamiflu within 48 hours of the onset of flu-like symptoms, and be made a priority group for immunisation once a vaccine becomes available.
"While pregnant women are also at increased risk during epidemics of seasonal flu, the risk takes on added importance in the current pandemic, which continues to affect a younger age group than that seen during seasonal epidemics," WHO reports in its latest briefing note.
WHO's immunisation experts have urged that health workers and pregnant women be given priority vaccinations.
But in their report to WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record, they urge international co-operation to monitor any side-effects of vaccines being rushed on to the market.
"Since some vaccines may be licensed solely on the basis of product quality data, implementation of post-marketing surveillance of the highest possible quality was identified as essential," the immunisation panel reports.
"Particular attention should be paid to pregnant women who have been vaccinated and to their babies."