Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=149733
Indigenous communities should get flu vaccine first: AMA
22nd June 2009, 16:15 WST
The Australian Medical Association is calling for priority to be given to Indigenous Australians when a vaccine becomes available for the swine flu virus.
The call follows news that another three Indigenous teenagers with the virus have been hospitalised in Alice Springs with pneumonia-like symptoms, and the death on Friday of a 26 year-old Indigenous man with swine flu.
The man, who had been suffering from a number of other health complications when he was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital last Wednesday, was from the remote WA Kiwirrkurra Aboriginal community, 1200km east of Port Hedland.
The teenagers come from an area in the Northern Territory with links to the Kiwirrkurra community.
National president of the AMA, Dr Andre Pesce, said Indigenous communities around the world had been shown to have a higher incidence of severe illness resulting from contact with the A/H1N1 virus than other segments of the population.
He said Indigenous Australians also suffered from higher rates of chronic disease and would therefore suffer more severe symptoms after contracting the virus than most other groups.
Indigenous Australians, pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions should be top of the list of those to receive the vaccines, he said.
Paul Button, clinical nurse manager at the Pintubi Homelands Health Services at Kintore, near the WA Northern Territory border, said his clinic was treating two people who had tested positive for the human swine flu virus.
A number of others were being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
Kintore and Kiwirrkurra are linked through cultural and marriage ties.
Mr Button said the community was very transient and any attempt to quarantine people would be ineffective.
He said that the poor living conditions of Indigenous people in communities such as Kintore meant their immune systems were often suppressed and therefore more likely to suffer complications as a result of getting swine flu.
?The problem is that many of the people here have low immunity and a flu like this can really knock them down,? Mr Button said.
He said he did not believe there would be deaths in the community from swine flu but the clinic was monitoring and protecting patients from secondary infections.
Mr Button said there was no panic in the community about the virus and people tended to be well aware of how it spread and its virulence.
He said sporting and other inter-community get togethers had taken place across the Northern Territory despite a number of communities already having cases of swine flu.
The man who died last week was known to have travelled to a number of communities in the past few weeks, some of which have already had diagnosed cases of swine flu.
Sally Clifford from the Balgo community in WA, eight hours drive by bush track from Kiwirrkurra, said people at Balgo were well aware of the dangers of swine flu and how it was spread and it was ?business as usual in the community? despite the death of the man known to community members.
Kiwirrkurra and Balgo enjoy a close relationship and Ms Clifford said the communities were in desert terms ?neighbours?.
?There is a lot happening here and a lot for people to think about other than the death,? Ms Clifford said.
Another neighbouring community at Warburton has less to do with the Kiwirrkurra community although only 400km away.
No road links Kiwirrkurra with Warburton but the communities are both part of the Ngaanyatjarraku Council.
Shire president of the Ngaanyatjarraku Council Damian McLean said people in his community were not concerned about swine flu and were well informed about its spread and the fact it was like many other types of seasonal flu.
?At this stage everyone seems to be relatively calm about it,? Mr McLean said.
?There is no real panic. There are no direct links between Kiwirrkurra and this community. Kiwirrkurra tends to have more links with communities in the Northern Territory.?
A spokeswoman from the WA Department of Health said the department had been in communication with the Ngaanyatjarra Health Service and the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council over the weekend and both organisations were ?very happy with our approach?.
She said a public health team from WA Goldfields would be arriving at the Kiwirrkurra community tomorrow to assess the situation.
?If there was a need to act faster over the past weekend, we would have done so,? the spokeswoman said.
?The health staff in Kiwirrkurra have not reported an increase in influenza-like illness in the community.
?The community already has stocks of Tamiflu, masks and other personal protective equipment. The Public Health team going to Kiwirrkurra and surrounding communities will be taking additional supplies of both Tamiflu and personal protective equipment and making an assessment of the situation.?
PERTH
JANE HAMMOND
Indigenous communities should get flu vaccine first: AMA
22nd June 2009, 16:15 WST
The Australian Medical Association is calling for priority to be given to Indigenous Australians when a vaccine becomes available for the swine flu virus.
The call follows news that another three Indigenous teenagers with the virus have been hospitalised in Alice Springs with pneumonia-like symptoms, and the death on Friday of a 26 year-old Indigenous man with swine flu.
The man, who had been suffering from a number of other health complications when he was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital last Wednesday, was from the remote WA Kiwirrkurra Aboriginal community, 1200km east of Port Hedland.
The teenagers come from an area in the Northern Territory with links to the Kiwirrkurra community.
National president of the AMA, Dr Andre Pesce, said Indigenous communities around the world had been shown to have a higher incidence of severe illness resulting from contact with the A/H1N1 virus than other segments of the population.
He said Indigenous Australians also suffered from higher rates of chronic disease and would therefore suffer more severe symptoms after contracting the virus than most other groups.
Indigenous Australians, pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions should be top of the list of those to receive the vaccines, he said.
Paul Button, clinical nurse manager at the Pintubi Homelands Health Services at Kintore, near the WA Northern Territory border, said his clinic was treating two people who had tested positive for the human swine flu virus.
A number of others were being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
Kintore and Kiwirrkurra are linked through cultural and marriage ties.
Mr Button said the community was very transient and any attempt to quarantine people would be ineffective.
He said that the poor living conditions of Indigenous people in communities such as Kintore meant their immune systems were often suppressed and therefore more likely to suffer complications as a result of getting swine flu.
?The problem is that many of the people here have low immunity and a flu like this can really knock them down,? Mr Button said.
He said he did not believe there would be deaths in the community from swine flu but the clinic was monitoring and protecting patients from secondary infections.
Mr Button said there was no panic in the community about the virus and people tended to be well aware of how it spread and its virulence.
He said sporting and other inter-community get togethers had taken place across the Northern Territory despite a number of communities already having cases of swine flu.
The man who died last week was known to have travelled to a number of communities in the past few weeks, some of which have already had diagnosed cases of swine flu.
Sally Clifford from the Balgo community in WA, eight hours drive by bush track from Kiwirrkurra, said people at Balgo were well aware of the dangers of swine flu and how it was spread and it was ?business as usual in the community? despite the death of the man known to community members.
Kiwirrkurra and Balgo enjoy a close relationship and Ms Clifford said the communities were in desert terms ?neighbours?.
?There is a lot happening here and a lot for people to think about other than the death,? Ms Clifford said.
Another neighbouring community at Warburton has less to do with the Kiwirrkurra community although only 400km away.
No road links Kiwirrkurra with Warburton but the communities are both part of the Ngaanyatjarraku Council.
Shire president of the Ngaanyatjarraku Council Damian McLean said people in his community were not concerned about swine flu and were well informed about its spread and the fact it was like many other types of seasonal flu.
?At this stage everyone seems to be relatively calm about it,? Mr McLean said.
?There is no real panic. There are no direct links between Kiwirrkurra and this community. Kiwirrkurra tends to have more links with communities in the Northern Territory.?
A spokeswoman from the WA Department of Health said the department had been in communication with the Ngaanyatjarra Health Service and the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council over the weekend and both organisations were ?very happy with our approach?.
She said a public health team from WA Goldfields would be arriving at the Kiwirrkurra community tomorrow to assess the situation.
?If there was a need to act faster over the past weekend, we would have done so,? the spokeswoman said.
?The health staff in Kiwirrkurra have not reported an increase in influenza-like illness in the community.
?The community already has stocks of Tamiflu, masks and other personal protective equipment. The Public Health team going to Kiwirrkurra and surrounding communities will be taking additional supplies of both Tamiflu and personal protective equipment and making an assessment of the situation.?
PERTH
JANE HAMMOND