Wellington hospitalisations higher than Victorias, 29 Wellington 33 Hawkes Bay

[kiwibird]

Wellington swine flu hospital admission rate "higher than Victoria"

Updated at 7:48am on 2 July 2009

An infectious disease specialist says Wellington has a higher rate of hospital admissions with swine flu than the Australian state of Victoria.

Dr Tim Blackmore says Wellington hospital is confirming 15 cases a day and 29 people are in hospital with swine flu.

He says 18 people were in hospital last Friday in Victoria. The state has a population of about five million.

Wellington also had 18 people in hospital that day, but that has since increased.

Dr Blackmore says the virus is mild to moderate for most people, but those most at risk, including children and those with respiratory diseases, may need help breathing.

He says swine flu is most strong in the Maori and Pacific Island communities in Wellington. It seems to have begun in Wainuiomata and Porirua.

Copyright ? 2009 Radio New Zealand
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/07/02/1245bb28c412

 

[kiwibird]

Re: Wellington hospitalisations higher than Victorias

Re: Wellington hospitalisations higher than Victorias

Swine flu adds to winter pressure
4:00AM Thursday Jul 02, 2009
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10581960&ref=rss
By Martin Johnston

The number of patients seeking help from hospitals and GPs has spiked as swine flu compounds the usual winter peak of illness in the community.

"We are now seeing an increased demand on some of our vital health services, given the rising number of cases of influenza this winter," the Health Ministry's deputy director of public health, Dr Fran McGrath, said yesterday.

"There's been a significant increase over the last three to four weeks in the numbers of people consulting primary care for influenza-like illness.

"Hospitals are also, anecdotally, reporting in some places an increased number of people turning up at emergency departments."

The weekly rate of GP consultations for flu-like illness has already soared above last winter's highest level, based on reports from a network of "sentinel" clinics to the ministry's scientific advisers for the week to June 21, the latest period reported.

Lab testing of samples, mainly from hospital patients during routine viral diagnosis, found that 208 of 558 influenza viruses were swine flu.

The clinical director of Auckland City Hospital's adults emergency department, Dr Tim Parke, said patient numbers were up.

"We are starting to see a winter spike and we are bracing a little bit for what is going to be a fairly bad winter."

He assumed that some of the spike was down to swine flu, but couldnot be certain, since only thosebeing admitted to a ward andthose in high-risk groups for the infection were being screened for it.

 

[kiwibird]

Re: Wellington hospitalisations higher than Victorias

Re: Wellington hospitalisations higher than Victorias

http://www4.stuff.co.nz/national/health/2557280/Board-refuses-to-issue-flu-case-detail

Board refuses to issue flu case detail
By KATHERINE NEWTON - The Dominion Post

Cancer centre needs fixing Board refuses to issue flu case detail Flu patient fights for her life More women to get free smear test Migration wrangle thwarts reunion Ageing machine delays therapy A new heart just in time Scientists claim swine flu vaccine Insurance demands may break law Waiting lists to get private care

Hawke's Bay District Health Board is refusing to say whether a 20-year-old woman critically ill with swine flu had existing health problems.

The refusal comes as the number of swine flu cases in New Zealand rose to 711 and international research showed the virus was affecting a greater number of young, healthy people than seasonal flu strains.

Labour Party health spokeswoman Ruth Dyson said yesterday that though she did not expect the board to issue specific details about the patient, it would be "helpful" for it to confirm whether or not she was previously healthy. "If ... the virus is affecting people in different ways, the sooner the New Zealand public knows, the better.

"This is what I would urge the district health board to consider."

A Health Ministry spokeswoman said she did not have any additional information on the patient and could not force the district health board to issue further details.

A spokesman for Health Minister Tony Ryall said he could not comment on the board's refusal to say if the patient had any underlying health conditions.

Hawke's Bay District Health Board has also had to postpone non-urgent surgery to help cope with a flood of patients with flu-related acute respiratory illness.

Thirty Hawke's Bay adults and three children are in hospital with respiratory illness, including three severe adult cases who are being treated in the hospital's intensive care high-dependency unit.

Capital and Coast and Auckland district health boards have also had to postpone some elective surgery, but spokespeople for both boards said that was because of normal winter numbers of patients rather than an influx of flu cases.

The ministry's deputy director of public health, Fran McGrath, said that overseas, swine flu cases had been reported in people who were fit and healthy, and became very unwell.

Most people would be able to look after themselves, but people whose symptoms worsened or who were more at risk, including pregnant women, people with respiratory disease, heart disease, liver disease or blood disorders, should contact their GP or phone the Healthline on 0800 611 116

 

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Wellington hospitalisations higher than Victorias, 29 Wellington 33 Hawkes Bay

Swine flu: Wellington cases top Victoria
By MICHAEL FOX - Stuff.co.nz
Last updated 16:23 02/07/2009


Wellington is seeing more people hospitalised with swine flu than Australia's swine flu capital Victoria, with around 30 people currently admitted to its hospitals.

Victoria, with a population of about five million had 18 patients in hospital last Friday, compared with Wellington's present number of almost 30 from a population of around 400,000.

However, Wellington microbiologist Dr Tim Blackmore said the timing of the spike in infections, with New Zealand successfully containing the virus for almost two months, could be making the figures appear worse than they were.

"It's obviously been a brutal winter and the numbers here are going up very quickly but that's probably not surprising," he said.

"If it was starting to slow down in Victoria then our numbers of patients on a particular day, compared to Victoria may be out of step. What the long term picture might be we don't know yet but certainly at the moment there's a lot of new cases emerging in the community and proportionally we're seeing quite a few in the hospital."

While instances of swine flu in New Zealand continue to increase, statistics show more that there have been 4,300 cases and nine deaths reported in Australia compared to 825 cases and no deaths here.

However, accurate records of confirmed cases are no longer kept and the total number is likely to be much higher.
Mr Blackmore told AAP that this was the "tip of the iceberg and it's looking moderately severe to us."

"The hospital services are starting to struggle. We've never seen admission rates like this before and unfortunately it's only going to get worse."

Sixty-nine people have been hospitalised in the Wellington region. Mr Blackmore said they were now only testing those who were believed to be in a more serious position.

He added that the majority of people were only in hospital for a day or two and asthma was playing a significant role in hospitalisations.

"There's a proportion of people who are coming in with primary influenza pneumonia - viral pneumonia - but most have asthma or something like that underneath it ... to make doctors more concerned about their health to have them in hospital."

He said the average age of people being admitted was early-20s and there were "quite a few" children.

While it was difficult to know exactly how many people had been admitted in total, "it's obviously something that we're going to look at more carefully."

The condition of the 30-year-old woman in intensive care in Wellington Hospital was today down-graded from life-threatening to serious. A woman in her early twenties is still in a critical condition in Hawke's Bay Hospital though it is not known whether she had any pre-existing medical conditions.

National Influenza Centre head Dr Sue Huang said that New Zealand's links with Australia, which sent more than one million visitors here last year, had made containing the virus more difficult.

"Once the virus established in Australia and because of the links New Zealand has with Australia ... it became really difficult to contain."

Meanwhile, swine flu is taking over from seasonal flu as the most commonly diagnosed influenza in the more serious cases this year.

Mr Blackmore said of the 294 positive influenza tests carried out in Wellington since June 23, only 25 were seasonal influenza and the rest were the new strain.

Since then, the lowest number of swine flu cases diagnosed in Wellington daily was ten and the highest was 37.

However, he said the ratio was about even in Auckland, with Christchurch "somewhere in the middle"

"The interesting thing about influenza is it does different patterns in different communities."

Maori and Pacific Islanders had an infection rate about 10 times higher than other ethnicities.

Mr Blackmore said he believed the number of infections could peak in a "few weeks" before easing, though the level of preparedness on behalf of health authorities meant they were well placed to cope.

"I think overall for New Zealand it's going to go on for a long time," he warned.

Ms Huang said they processed more than 1000 samples from suspected cases last week, which confirmed that swine flu was becoming more prevalent than other influenzas.

She said all tests for Tamiflu resistance and virus mutations had so far come back negative.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/2560034/Swine-flu-Wellington-cases-top-Victoria

 

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Wellington hospitalisations higher than Victorias, 29 Wellington 33 Hawkes Bay

'Bad luck' as capital swine flu multiplies
By KATHERINE NEWTON - The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 03/07/2009

Wellington is catching up to Melbourne as the swine flu capital of Australasia, with one doctor warning that hospital services are fast becoming stretched.

More than 100 new cases were confirmed nationally yesterday, 49 in Wellington.

Since swine flu reached Wellington, 65 people have been admitted to hospital with the virus, including one woman who was critically ill in Wellington Hospital. Her condition has since been downgraded to serious, but stable.

Wellington Hospital's clinical leader of laboratory services, Tim Blackmore, said 29 swine flu patients were in hospital in the region earlier this week and the lab was diagnosing 15 to 20 swine flu cases each day.

Victoria had 18 patients in hospital last Friday, out of a population of five million. Melbourne has about 1600 swine flu cases.

Wellington Hospital went into "code red" meaning no new patients could be admitted between Tuesday and Wednesday night, Dr Blackmore said. Services were starting to struggle.

"We've never seen admission rates like this before and unfortunately it's only going to get worse."

A spokesman for Capital and Coast District Health Board said the hospital was coping.

"Having 20 patients with swine flu in a 520-bed hospital does not make a huge difference."

However, staff absences were making things harder than last winter, he said.

"It's further exacerbated this year because staff are being advised to stay home if they may have flu."

Dr Blackmore said it was hard to pin down why Wellington had been hit worse than other areas.

"The answer for Melbourne was luck of the bad variety and ... it's probably the same for Wellington.

"It may also be to do with the weather, because we've just had a really bad run.".

Maori, Pacific Islanders and lower socioeconomic areas had been hit harder than others.

"Transmissible diseases relate to social behaviour and how many people are in a house."

A Regional Public Health report issued yesterday confirmed Dr Blackmore's research, showing the virus had disproportionately affected Pacific Islanders, poorer communities and young people.

The rate of infection among Pacific Islanders was 27 cases per 10,000 people, against six cases per 10,000 for the total regional population. For those aged 15 to 24, the rate was 12 per 10,000 people.

Between June 28 and 30, five or more Tamiflu prescriptions were issued in Wainuiomata, Trentham, Naenae and Taita, and Porirua East.

The report also said 35 schools and childcare centres reported absence rates of 30 per cent or more last week.

Chief medical officer Margot Mc Lean said extra support was being given to public health staff in the Hutt Valley and Porirua.


The Health Ministry said it still had about 90 per cent of its Tamiflu stock left.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-pos...0906/Bad-luck-as-capital-swine-flu-multiplies

 

[kiwibird]

Re: Wellington hospitalisations higher than Victorias, 29 Wellington 33 Hawkes Bay

A pictorial of pandemic management. Well worth a look - but I have not posted the photos in order to keep thread loading quickly. Follow link - it puts a human face on the outbreak;

http://www.ccdhb.org.nz/News/2009_archive/09_07_02.htm

Page Updated 07/03/2009

A Pandemic Pictorial

Winter?s always a busy period at any hospital, and June 2009 was especially busy with the arrival of the ?Swine Flu? pandemic adding further stresses and strains. The arrival of ?Novel A H1N1? (to give the swine flu its proper name) required all hospital staff to rapidly adapt to the changing environment.

Otago University School of Medicine photographer Lousie Goossens spent some time looking at the various roles C&C DHB staff played during the early stages of the swine flu pandemic.
Emergency Department

With the formal announcement of the influenza outbreak came increasing numbers of patients arriving in ED. In order to help protect against the further spread of flu frontline staff began taking added precautions when dealing with patients, including the wearing of masks.

Click on photos for a larger version.


Flu Centre

A specialist Flu Assessment Centre opened on the Wellington Hospital site in June so that patients and staff who suspected they had swine flu could be swabbed in a neutral environment that moved suspected flu cases away from a busy ED department. The centre closed to the public once the government moved New Zealand to the ?management? phase of swine flu.

Click on photos for a larger version.


Testing

With the swabbing of patients came a huge increase in the number of people requiring lab test results from infectious diseases and lab staff.

Click on photos for a larger version.


The Management Phase

The nationwide shift to a Management Phase meant most people were no longer routinely swabbed if they had flu-like symptoms (sneezing, coughing, or a high temperature). Meanwhile ongoing planning meetings looked at how best to utilise staff while everyone from ward staff to orderlies adapted to the changing influenza environment.

Click on photos for a larger version.

NewZealand.govt.nz
Minstry of Health

 

[kiwibird]

Re: Wellington hospitalisations higher than Victorias, 29 Wellington 33 Hawkes Bay

Swine-flu cases in Bay soar to 57

By KATE NEWTON | 3rd July 2009

Hawke's Bay's number of confirmed cases of swine flu has rocketed again and stands at 57, making the region the most affected by the virus behind the big cities.

A woman in her early 20s is still in a critical condition with swine flu in Hawke's Bay Hospital while another three are stable.

The region has been hit hard this week, with 53 of the diagnoses made in the past seven days and the tally more than doubling overnight after 25 cases were reported yesterday.

Elective surgery at Hawke's Bay Hospital has been postponed for another week while staff tend to a high number of patients with acute respiratory illness.

Acting CEO Warrick Frater said with staff numbers down due to sickness and continuing demand on intensive-care services, the decision had been made to extend the break from elective surgery.

"At the moment we have no choice but to continue to postpone elective inpatient surgery and we apologise to those patients who have been inconvenienced, but it is the only action we can take to relieve pressure," Mr Frater said.


Patients booked for elective inpatient surgery would be contacted and given a revised date while surgery for cancer and high-risk patients would go ahead as planned.

People with the flu are banned from visiting the hospital and patients in the A1 ward and ICU-High Dependency Unit were restricted to one visitor each to restrict the spread of illness.

New Zealand has 825 cases of swine flu, with Wellington overtaking Melbourne as the swine-flu capital of Australasia.

The Australian state of Victoria, with a population of 5 million, had 18 inpatients, the same as the Wellington region with just 400,000 residents.

Tim Blackmore, of Wellington Hospital, said at least four in every 10 New Zealanders would get the illness.

"The hospital services are starting to struggle. We've never seen admission rates like this before and unfortunately it's only going to get worse," Dr Blackmore said.

Dr McGrath said the reported confirmed case numbers were now only a small proportion of the total number of people with the influenza.

* Patients with queries regarding planned elective inpatient surgery are asked to phone 0800 450 113 for further information.
http://www.hawkesbaytoday.co.nz/local/news/swine-flu-cases-in-bay-soar-to-57/3900927/