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From: Joe Gallagher
>People once had a irrational fear of falling off the end of earth.
>People have become more sophisticated (arguable) but only the fears have
>changed. I got 10 calls this weekend worried specifically about
>Meningococcal Meningitis. Some are pressing flesh with glass slides and
>performing 24hr vigils on children. There is no outbreak in this area.
Four cases in this area in last month (pop 130,000) one died and the OOH
demand is going a bit silly. Not during office hours in my practice though,
odd that? Is it me or the dark? ;-)
>Although the media are doing a good job of heightening awareness of this
>pernicious condition I fear they are making a less ideal job of keeping
>the condition in perspective. But then that doesn't make good copy.
>One health correspondent in one of our broadsheets stated. " Meningitis
>is carried at the back of the throat of a lot of people"
>I have seen one case of bacterial meningitis in 10 years. Is this
>unusually small number of cases?
I tend to agree with a follow up to this thread which stated that the media
feeding frenzy is making the problem harder to detect. The volume of calls
doubled to what I would have expected to get on an evening shift last night
at the Co-op. I agree it's a balance between vigilance and panic. I also
agree that with people crying Wolf so much that some poor sod is going to
advise a child who dies from meningitis and sympathy will be due to both the
family and the doctor (or nurse in AyrDoc).
It is too much to ask the media to report responsibly without emotive
phrases such as "Killer brain bug" strikes or "Flesh eating germ kills two"
etc..
Probably not :-((
Paul Attwood
GP Thanet E. Kent
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