Re: Australia - NSW - 13 deaths total
Re: Australia - NSW - 13 deaths total
Swine flu cases likely to peak in NSW
July 21, 2009 - 12:29PM
Swine flu cases are likely to peak in NSW next month as children return to school after the holidays, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) says.
NSW AMA president Brian Morton says medical authorities are bracing for an increase in intensive care cases and deaths in August.
"The evidence that everyone's working on is that the peak of seasonal flu will usually occur late July/August so we would expect that with H1N1 swine flu," Dr Morton told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
The health system should focus on new equipment being imported and learning lessons to prepare for a more virulent virus in the future, he said.
"(We should be) buying more equipment, making sure that there are highly qualified and trained nurses and doctors available and putting money into our system so that it can cope in normal times plus in times of stress," Dr Morton said.
Three men with swine flu and other serious medical conditions have died recently in NSW, bringing the state's total deaths associated with the pandemic to 13.
The national toll stands at 35, with 14 in Victoria, three in the Northern Territory, two in South Australia, and one each in Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia.
Dr Morton said hospitals would most likely experience a spike in swine flu cases when school children return to school next week.
"Winter will be well and truly upon us and that seasonal peak and the peak with swine flu may occur then," he said.
"Somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 deaths from seasonal flu occur (each year) and it's a little bit different to the human swine flu.
"In seasonal influenza it's usually those elderly and those with multi-system disease who are the greatest at risk with this sort of pandemic.
"A younger group, because it has no immunity, is at higher risk (from swine flu) but those who are likely to die are those with multi-system disease, high risk - pregnancy and obesity are some of the reasons."
It was still unclear why swine flu struck first in Victoria, Dr Morton said.
Meanwhile, specialist emergency teams will be sent by ambulance to the homes of critically ill NSW swine flu patients suffering severe respiratory or cardiac problems.
NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca says $1 million will be spent on five new extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines, which pump oxygen into the bloodstream, to be used by the specialist teams as they transport the patients to hospital.
The specialists will operate as part of a new patient retrieval service based at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred and St Vincent's hospitals.
However, NSW residents will have to wait until later in the year for the machines to be installed in helicopters.
"We will be rolling out the retrieval of patients by ambulance now," Mr Della Bosca told reporters on Tuesday.
"That will put us as a world leader in regard to the use of this kind of technology and the logistics behind it, but of course it would be useful to have a crystal ball and speculate about what might happen in the future."
He said NSW was already providing "world leadership" in rolling out the ECMO retrieval technology
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-...ases-likely-to-peak-in-nsw-20090721-drbi.html
