It's official. As if we haven't enough to contend with, H1N1 has hit Trinidad and there have been five deaths during the last few days. That is not good for an island with a population of merely 1.3 million a large proportion of which do not feel it is necessary to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze! Sad but true. I remember as a child living in Singapore, how I used to heave when people, no matter where they were, cleared their throats and spat. Lee Kuan Yew brought an end to that. No one is going to bring an end to that here.
Trinidad Daily Express this morning:
Free Tamiflu
Ministry makes swine flu drug more accessible to public
There is a great spiel on how the drug will be available for everyone at public and private institutions, at no cost. Well that won't be true. First of all the government has only 200,000 plus doses and secondly no private institution is going to administer the drug free of charge.
As usual the Minister of Health has said there is no need for panic. You tell that to you mother/father/child/tantie/uncle et al when they have been sitting in A&E for thirteen hours with uncontrolled fever and no one is attending to them. Yes there is a normal flu bug around too but how can one be sure without some sort of appraisal. One person went to a private doctor twice and was given medication. He eventually went to the public hospital. He is dead. So people are not supposed to panic. Of course people will panic. More so when they know that the only option for them is to stay here and hope that they are treated in a health service which is in total disarray. One family complained that they had to share two masks when they arrived at the hospital. Some months ago when my daughter was ill and I had her tested for H1NI in a private hospital, she was given a mask - I was not!
The best place to be is out on the beach. That is the safest place according to one of our more prominent doctors. The germs don't like the open air and steer clear of sun, sand and sea. It's raining!
Well, I was going to suggest heading for the beach, but I guess it won't do much good if it's raining.
ReplyDeleteCute pigs.
I just love pigs....these are especially cute, and I think they got a bad rap with this flu being named after them. All aside....Last few of your blogs have left me speechless. This one is no exception. With a population of that size it should be pristine....no flu, no crime..no criminals in government. All I can say is to take care my friend. Too many fronts to monitor..watch your back.
ReplyDeleteBTW Tamiflu does not work. It is all drug company hype so don't bother. Best thing you can do is call in sick and stay home for 3 weeks until epidemic passes.
ReplyDeleteI know that Tamiflu doesn't work - I was going to write about it but decided against it! Not only does it not work, it can apparently be positively dangerous!
ReplyDeleteMy mother had the H1N1 vaccine as she has had problems int eh past with the lungs and had bronchitis. She tolerated that well and apparently isw now protected from the new flu.
ReplyDeleteSome info on Tamiflu:
http://www.rxlist.com/tamiflu-drug.htm
and:
http://www.tamiflu.com/sideeffects.aspx
I blogged on H1N1 some time ago:
http://nicholasjv.blogspot.com/2009/04/swine-flu.html
and:
http://nicholasjv.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-flu-australian-update.html
Hope you and your family are not infected!
Hi now a days the influenza is all over the world this terrible problem don't care for the color or for the class of person it just affect the system and if you don't take care you can die, also if you loss hair you can use propecia and hair loss bye .
ReplyDelete