Scott McPherson's Web Presence

It appears this year's seasonal outbreak of influenza is playing Hell with medical response Down Under (the Southern Hemisphere's flu season is now).  We have already witnessed several reports of co-infection of influenza and strep in Australia, with several children dying.  Deaths due to seasonal influenza are not rare; in the US, some 40,000 deaths a year are attributed to seasonal H1N1 and H3N2 influenza.  And those statistics will have to be modified with the recent revelation that influenza can trigger heart attacks.  As a result, seasonal mortality should be doubled, at least.

But in New Zealand as we speak, hospitals are triggering their pandemic response plans, because they are being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of sick patients with seasonal influenza.  This is not a government response; officially, the Kiwis are still at Yellow.  But the hospitals are going to Code Red, which is their pandemic response for staffing. This response includes cancellation of leave, hiring of retired nurses and desperately trying to open up staffed beds.  To the uninitiated: The number of hospital beds is irrelevant; it is the number of staffed beds that matters.  So in New Zealand, they have plenty of beds, just not enough staffed beds.  And that is exacerbating the current situation there. 

Authorities in Wellington are proclaiming that this year is no different than any other, caused by a lack of qualified nurses.  Why a regular occurrence that threatens the lives of New Zealanders should be treated so cavalierly by not being treated at all is beyond me.  But it again should show that there is zero surge capacity in medicine today, no matter where you live.  Zero, zip, zilch, nada. 

Go into any American emergency room during flu season to confirm my statement.  The walls are lined with sick and coughing patients seeking treatment.  Most are outfitted with masks to try and stop the shedding of virus.  But the fact remains that an influenza pandemic will quickly and totally clog the ability of medical personnel to attend to their needs.

New Zealand is one of those rare countries that has been held up as a Best Practice at pandemic response and mitigation.  Apparently, those salutations and accolades do not reach down to hospital decision-makers who allow chronic shortages of qualified nurses during the peak of flu season.  Is it any wonder, then, that people remain highly skeptical of government and medical response to a pandemic or biological threat?

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30082

A tip o' the hat to FluTrackers senior moderator Hawkeye for the information.  Just for grins, here is a Kiwi story that predicted this mess:

http://www.newstarget.com/006099.html