More patients recover from H1N1

G.Debono

Jul 13th 2009, 22:56

@D. Fenech

Mr. Fenech, may I ask why you took antibiotics? Was it a self prescription or was it the doctor who prescribed them ? I ask, because if you had the flu, I believe, they are useless (stand to be corrected) to combat flu.

C. Weitze

Jul 13th 2009, 22:12

Indeed very sad that this girl had to die.

However, WITHOUT AN AUTOPSY nobody can and no doctor or hospital will make a statement whether or not the child was completely healthy before she got infected with this virus!!!

The director of education is certainly the wrong person to ask about the state of health of one of his pupils.

Furthermore you/the media-people have absolutly no proof whether that child would be still alive had it been given Tamiflu on time.

The article copied into this blog is so far simply full of assumtions.

The only thing I agree with you 100% is, that everybody who developes flu symtoms should be swapped, since otherwise we will manage to control this virus.

D Fenech

Jul 13th 2009, 20:34

A "perfectly healthy" six-year-old girl died of swine flu within hours of being taken to hospital after complaining of a sore throat, it has emerged. Chloe Buckley was a pupil at St Catherine's School in West Drayton Chloe Buckley, from north west London, died on Thursday a day after her GP wrongly diagnosed her illness. Sky reporter Victoria Gatenby said: "Chloe's parents took her to their GP on Wednesday with a sore throat. "The GP diagnosed her with tonsillitis, sending her home without Tamiflu, which is the drug that combats swine flu." The youngster's condition quickly deteriorated and she was taken to the accident and emergency unit at Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge. On Thursday she was transferred to St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, but despite doctors' efforts she died. Chris Spencer, director of education and children's services for Hillingdon Council, said: "This is a little girl who until a few days ago in all our minds was a child that was perfectly healthy so everybody here is in a deep state of shock."

D Fenech

Jul 13th 2009, 20:29

@ Liam Caruana Yes but what is happening here is that only a few cases are being swabbed. Tamiflu has to be taken within the first 2 days otherwise it is useless. I personally had flu symptoms. My doc advised testing since i had been to Cyprus recently. He advised me to phone and not just turn up for test. i phoned and was told I was not a high risk case since it had been 2 weeks since my return from Cyprus and did not need to be swabbed. When my symptoms aggravated I phoned again twice and got the same reply. I took antibiotics. My doctor said he cannot guarantee it was or wasn't swine flu. I will never know. Thank God although still not 100% I am getting better. I am sure i am not the only one with this experience. The point is we need to all be very vigilant. And not try to laugh it off or undermine the situation.

Liam Caruana

Jul 13th 2009, 19:55

@D Fenech But the news said that the girl did not take Tamiflu... that's why she died.

Caroline Mallia

Jul 13th 2009, 19:42

I was just listening to SkyNews and in England it seems that it is actually spreading quite fast.this is on Skynews @19.39. this evening. hope we are not going to get the same in Malta from the UK visitors. and end up in an Pandemic situation as is expected in Britian.

J.Spiteri

Jul 13th 2009, 18:42

So I guess these latest 2 cases fell under the 'vulnerable groups'? I would appreciate if the Health Authorities gave a little bit more information about who's being swabbed or not. I'm slightly confused.

D Fenech

Jul 13th 2009, 18:27

For those who think that people who are concerned re. the spread of the swine flu virus in Malta are paranoid and melodramatic! Two people with no underlying health problems, including a 6 year old girl, have died this week in UK.