From: ABlainey@aol.com
Date: Tue Apr 15 2003 - 20:08:57 MDT
Dont panick !!!! or do?
An article in a local newspaper gave me cause for concern regarding SARS.
The article stated that a young boy had been admitted to the local A and E
with a dry cough and high fever. He tested negative to all the usual tests,
yet sadly died shortly after. The headline was something like 'mystery
illness kills local boy' and the Hospital had been unable to determine the
cause.
The article was published about a month ago, before any reported cases of
SARS in the UK, So although I was understandably concerned, it didn't worry
me enough to post anything about it. The reason I am posting now is due to
something that happened today.
My best friends son developed a similar illness about a week after that of
the boy. Due to close contact with my friends son. Both I, My friend My wife
and My youngest daughter also developed what could be described as flu like
symptoms. This is no supprise really as 'There is alot of it about' in the
area and it seems that just about everyone has been ill on and off for
months. There is many people that are saying 'I just cant seem to shake it' I
was more concerned when I talked to my friend about SARS and if he had seen
the article. Not only had he seen it, His son was in the same class as the
boy that had died.
At about this point the alarm bells started ringing, but didn't unduely
concern me, as people get colds and flu all the time, especially from there
kids. What did concern me was that today I picked up my friend and his family
from the airport after there holiday. I was worried to hear his son still
coughing away like he had been smoking 60 a day. I then realised that I and
my family are also still not fully recovered from illness, If anything my
wife appears to be getting worse. She visited her GP last week and told him
her symptoms which read like either that of SARS or Flu. He prescribed a
short course of antibiotics. (Hmmmmmm.....Antibiotics?....Virus)
Just for info, we live around 25 miles north of London, where there has been
3 reported cases so far with local transmission. A large percentage of the
local populus commute to London daily.
So is it time to start panicking yet ? I'm still not sure. More than likely
not.
All this is very coincidental and is based on the tragic death of a local
child that may have had nothing to do with SARS. This little local chain of
events has highlighted several problems to me.
When do you start to panick, or start to take serious precautions?
In the current state of health alerts, shouldn't GP's er on the side of
caution and at least order a few tests? Especially in a case like this where
there is a close degree of seperation between an unexplained death and
someone reporting similar symptoms.
The whole episode has made me wonder about how we always playing catch up in
epidemic type situations. There seems to be very little prevention or caution
involved.
It makes you think about how easy it is for a major epidemic to start, just
because the relevent people can't see all the pieces of the puzzle forming
until it is too late.
Alex (Still coughing and feeling like crap)
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