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Source: http://www.gazette.uottawa.ca/article/uottawa_public_health_policy_expert_debunks_h1n1_myths/
UOttawa public health policy expert debunks H1N1 myths
Published on December 3rd, 2009 by Dave Weatherall
As the Canada Research Chair in Public Health Policy at uOttawa, Dr. Kumanan Wilson has been highly sought after by media outlets looking for insight about H1N1 and governmental response to the outbreak. This new role as spokesperson has provided him with a firsthand view of the role the media play during a pandemic.
?I?ve been getting calls from two or three reporters a day and I like to help them try to understand a difficult story as best I can,? he says. ?When there?s confusion and uncertainty, it?s up to the media and media commentators to explain to the audience what is happening.?
Dr. Wilson says part of his new role as a pandemic preparation expert is to clarify some of the myths surrounding H1N1. ?One of the biggest myths is that seasonal flu deaths can be compared to deaths attributable to H1N1. It?s like comparing apples to oranges.?
Frontline medical workers that Dr. Wilson has spoken with have told him they have seen patients with H1N1 directly fall ill and die from the virus. This is not the case with seasonal flu, where the infection often weakens an already vulnerable individual who then dies from another cause.
?This is an entirely unique phenomenon,? he says. ?A seasonal flu death which may be a 20 per cent contributing factor and shorten an elderly person?s life by a year is not equivalent to an H1N1 death which may be the sole cause of death in a young person.?
Ten years ago Dr. Wilson was also on the frontlines of a worldwide pandemic as a clinician during the SARS crisis at the Toronto General, where he said he saw firsthand just how broken the system was.
?I heard about SARS from one of my residents who had been on the phone with her mom who had been watching CNN reporting on the developing story.?
He said information sharing in Canada and internationally has come a long way since that time. ?If you look at the H1N1 pandemic, science accurately predicted that we were overdue for a pandemic. In the spring it predicted a second wave and a vaccine was prepared and distributed,? says Wilson.
While significant improvements have been made in terms of information sharing and cooperation among health agencies domestically and abroad, Dr. Wilson said there is still a need for a centralized, national information system to protect Canadians from future public health issues along the lines of H1N1, Walkerton and Listeria. The Public Health Agency of Canada is currently working on a program tentatively called Panorama, which has to be operational by 2012 under binding international law.
?Governments have a social contract to protect their citizens,? he says. ?If you look at the Conservatives in Ontario after Walkerton, or the Bush administration after Hurricane Katrina, it?s clear that governments that don?t protect their citizens tend to get kicked out.?
Despite his words of caution, Dr. Wilson is not alarmist in his assessment of the handling of the current H1N1 epidemic.
?If you compare the federal government?s response to H1N1 to the handling of the recent financial crisis, which received considerably more funding to correct its problems, then the H1N1 pandemic has been handled pretty well.?
While continuing his work on improving Canada?s public health policy?he hopes to release an edited book on the role of federalism in public health next year?Dr. Wilson is also currently planning a study to determine whether children with metabolic disorders or vulnerabilities experience adverse affects from vaccinations.
To learn more about Dr. Wilson?s work visit http://www.publichealthpolicy.org/
UOttawa public health policy expert debunks H1N1 myths
Published on December 3rd, 2009 by Dave Weatherall
As the Canada Research Chair in Public Health Policy at uOttawa, Dr. Kumanan Wilson has been highly sought after by media outlets looking for insight about H1N1 and governmental response to the outbreak. This new role as spokesperson has provided him with a firsthand view of the role the media play during a pandemic.
?I?ve been getting calls from two or three reporters a day and I like to help them try to understand a difficult story as best I can,? he says. ?When there?s confusion and uncertainty, it?s up to the media and media commentators to explain to the audience what is happening.?
Dr. Wilson says part of his new role as a pandemic preparation expert is to clarify some of the myths surrounding H1N1. ?One of the biggest myths is that seasonal flu deaths can be compared to deaths attributable to H1N1. It?s like comparing apples to oranges.?
Frontline medical workers that Dr. Wilson has spoken with have told him they have seen patients with H1N1 directly fall ill and die from the virus. This is not the case with seasonal flu, where the infection often weakens an already vulnerable individual who then dies from another cause.
?This is an entirely unique phenomenon,? he says. ?A seasonal flu death which may be a 20 per cent contributing factor and shorten an elderly person?s life by a year is not equivalent to an H1N1 death which may be the sole cause of death in a young person.?
Ten years ago Dr. Wilson was also on the frontlines of a worldwide pandemic as a clinician during the SARS crisis at the Toronto General, where he said he saw firsthand just how broken the system was.
?I heard about SARS from one of my residents who had been on the phone with her mom who had been watching CNN reporting on the developing story.?
He said information sharing in Canada and internationally has come a long way since that time. ?If you look at the H1N1 pandemic, science accurately predicted that we were overdue for a pandemic. In the spring it predicted a second wave and a vaccine was prepared and distributed,? says Wilson.
While significant improvements have been made in terms of information sharing and cooperation among health agencies domestically and abroad, Dr. Wilson said there is still a need for a centralized, national information system to protect Canadians from future public health issues along the lines of H1N1, Walkerton and Listeria. The Public Health Agency of Canada is currently working on a program tentatively called Panorama, which has to be operational by 2012 under binding international law.
?Governments have a social contract to protect their citizens,? he says. ?If you look at the Conservatives in Ontario after Walkerton, or the Bush administration after Hurricane Katrina, it?s clear that governments that don?t protect their citizens tend to get kicked out.?
Despite his words of caution, Dr. Wilson is not alarmist in his assessment of the handling of the current H1N1 epidemic.
?If you compare the federal government?s response to H1N1 to the handling of the recent financial crisis, which received considerably more funding to correct its problems, then the H1N1 pandemic has been handled pretty well.?
While continuing his work on improving Canada?s public health policy?he hopes to release an edited book on the role of federalism in public health next year?Dr. Wilson is also currently planning a study to determine whether children with metabolic disorders or vulnerabilities experience adverse affects from vaccinations.
To learn more about Dr. Wilson?s work visit http://www.publichealthpolicy.org/