At 23:46 27/04/2009, you wrote:
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>Remember all the fuss about bird flu?? Any e-mails through today? I am in
>tomorrow so will find out. Is the time of year likely to make it less of a
>problem (if anything happens anyway?)
>
>Best wishes
>
>Paul Bromley
I believe our PCT has indeed been in contact with all practices
(locally by fax).
Patients with relevant symptoms should not attend surgery at
present. If they do attend, perhaps inadvertently, masks may be of
some value (or may not) but gowns were only recommended for
procedures such as nebulization if I remember correctly.
Trying to get information that has not been politically filtered is
proving more difficult than I expected, so perhaps the planners'
hopes of information control will come to fruition.
http://www.anamariasalazar.com/ is far from ideal, but the report is
from Mexico, and of course for those of us who don't speak Spanish it
has the advantage of being in English.
WHO has raised the Pandemic Alert level to 4 as of yesterday evening,
COBRA had a session earlier today, and the FCO has finally changed
its travel advice to suggest that travel to affected parts of Mexico
should be limited to essential travel only.
Source
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-and-living-overseas/travel-advice-by-country/north-central-america/mexico
Sources I found useful yesterday included:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_flu
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/
A lot of useful links on this US website.
Clinicians (US)
Clinicians should consider the possibility of swine influenza virus
infections in patients presenting with febrile respiratory illness who
Live in an area where human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) has
been identified or
Have traveled to an area where human cases of swine influenza A
(H1N1) has been identified or
Have been in contact with ill persons from these areas in the 7 days
prior to their illness onset.
If swine flu is suspected, clinicians should obtain a respiratory
swab for swine influenza testing and place it in a refrigerator (not
a freezer). Once collected, the clinician should contact their state
or local health department to facilitate transport and timely
diagnosis at a state public health laboratory.
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_04_24/en/index.html
The Swine Influenza A/H1N1 viruses characterized in this outbreak
have not been previously detected in pigs or humans. The viruses so
far characterized have been sensitive to oseltamivir, but resistant
to both amantadine and rimantadine.
http://www.pighealth.com/influenza.htm
Scroll down to text info of some interest.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/27/global-alert-swine-flu-who
Also note (not from above article) that many US airlines ARE allowing
passengers to change travel plans to avoid Mexico with no
charges. BA was not 26/4/09.
Best wishes to all,
Julian
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