As part of the overall preparation plan should there be widespread infection with the H1N1 virus the government are considering an action plan which would involve moving non-infectious and elderly patients to non-clinical facilities like hotels, gymnasiums and schools to free up hospital beds for the victims of the pandemic.

However overly dramatic this may seem given that WHO are still emphasizing the relative mildness of the disease in the greater majority of patients it does point out how aware the government is in the woefully inadequate number of hospital beds and specialist public health care available – especially in the South.

Pandemic or not, I wish they’d get it sorted so that an appointment at Mahon can be expected within the same month that  it was asked for.

Hotels and Colleges Plan for H1n1

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which replaced the E111 in 2006  can be used to cover any necessary medical treatment due to either an accident or illness while on holiday in Tenerife (or elsewhere within the European Economic Area and Switzerland).

Not all  services you would expect within the UK will be covered and you may have to make a contribution towards the care you receive.

There is no information on the EHIC website specific to its use for the treatment of swine flu but it might be the only cover you have unless you have read the fine print of your travel insurer or called them to confirm that they do offer pandemic cover.

The EHIC can only cover you if you show it upon arrival at the hospital. To be on the safe side, carry it with you at all times.

The Ministry of Health for the Canary Islands reported that as of today there are now 31 cases of H1N1 in the islands.

The province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has seen 18 of these cases most of which have fully recovered and only four which were admitted to hospital. Of these one has already been released and the others are all doing well.

PREPARATIONS BEFORE THE PANDEMIC

The Ministry of Health went on to state that the health authorites are keeping an ever closer eye on the situation and focussing efforts on the mitigation of the effects on influenza in patients before going on to add that the health system in Spain and therefore the Canary Islands are ready to handle this phase of the pandemic.

The Ministry of Health committed to supply an update on the development of the pandemic and government policies every Monday or more often should that become necessary.

I posted about the first two cases of H1N1 in Tenerife some weeks ago and I think because of that a lot of people are finding their way to the door of Tenerife Tattle with related search terms like H1N1 Tenerife, or swine flu in Tenerife.

As far as I know the latest head count – if that is what the visitors are looking for – is standing around 11 people in Tenerife currently infected with swine flu . But what I think they are really looking for more than anything else is reassurance – the security of knowing that they are not coming on holiday to a hotbed of infection.

For the moment I can say Tenerife is not badly affected but  I don’t doubt that swine flu will arrive in quantity with the summer visitors. How could it not? With infection rates spiraling out of control in London and the rest of the UK it is inevitable that some people in the incubation period will get on flights to the island.

I don’t blame people for being scared. I know it shocked me yesterday to read about the death of young Chloe Buckley. She was one year younger than my own daughter who will also be planning a birthday party soon. I cannot imagine how her parents are coping and my heart goes out to them. I also can not imagine how I would get  through a similar tragedy in my own life.

For the first time ever the reality of this new disease hit home. I thought of the planes landing at TFS filled with potential carriers and I thought of young Chloe,  looked at my two young kids and I began to panic.

Just at that point I received a comment on the previous swine flu post which more or less said don’t worry. Masks and vitamin C will be enough to stave off an infection. I don’t believe that but it did make me stop and think.

The thing is no matter who tells you what or whatever you read in the newspaper nobody really seems to know anything at all about it. Nevertheless I am sure money is being made off my fear and yours. Should I run out and buy masks, stock up on herbal pills, vitamins? Buy dodgy Tamiflu off an online druggist?  What can I do to protect my babies?

I think the answer to that was written long ago by Douglas Adams. The best thing I can do for my family is Don’t Panic! Don’t rush about snapping up whatever snake oil and bullshit the peddlars are pushing you. Discount the panic-mongering of the local rumour mill or red-top newspapers desperate to push up daily sales.

But do stay informed about the latest H1N1 developments from the best sources available.

Swine Flu Advice from the World Health Organisation

General advice
It is important to remember that in the community setting the following general measures may be more important than wearing a mask in preventing the spread of influenza.

For individuals who are well:
Maintain distance of at least 1 metre from any individual with influenza-like symptoms, and:
• refrain from touching mouth and nose;
• perform hand hygiene frequently, by washing with soap and water or using an alcohol based handrub , especially if touching the mouth and nose and surfaces that are potentially contaminated;
• reduce as much as possible the time spent in close contact with people who might be ill;
• reduce as much as possible the time spent in crowded settings;
• improve airflow in your living space by opening windows as much as possible.

For individuals with influenza-like symptoms:
• stay at home if you feel unwell and follow the local public health recommendations;
• keep distance from well individuals as much as possible (at least 1 metre);
• cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, with tissues or other suitable materials, to contain respiratory secretions. Dispose of the material immediately after use or wash it. Clean hands immediately after contact with respiratory secretions!
• improve airflow in your living space by opening windows as much as possible.

Use of Masks
If masks are worn, proper use and disposal is essential to ensure they are potentially effective and to avoid any increase in risk of transmission associated with the incorrect use of masks.

The following information on correct use of masks derives from the practices in health-care settings:
• place mask carefully to cover mouth and nose and tie securely to minimise any gaps between the face and the mask
• while in use, avoid touching the mask
− whenever you touch a used mask, for example when removing or washing, clean hands by washing with soap and water or using an alcohol-based handrub
• replace masks with a new clean, dry mask as soon as they become damp/humid
• do not re-use single-use masks − discard single-use masks after each use and dispose of them immediately upon
removing.
Although some alternative barriers to standard medical masks are frequently used (e.g. cloth mask, scarf, paper masks, rags tied over the nose and mouth), there is insufficient information available on their effectiveness. If such alternative barriers are used, they should only be used once or, in the case of cloth masks, should be cleaned thoroughly between each use (i.e. wash with normal household detergent at normal temperature). They should be removed immediately after caring for the ill. Hands should be washed immediately after removal of the mask.

For more information go to World Health Organisation on H1N1

The Consejería de Sanidad of the Canary Islands Government is investigating two new cases of suspected H1N1 (otherwise know as swine flu) report Diario de Avisos. The article roughly translates to say that one person is a youngster who is being treated at Hospital Universitario de Canarias in Tenerife and was recently in Mexico and the other a 58 year old man who has recently returned from the US and is currently being treated in Gran Canaria.

Both previous suspected cases of this new strain of influenza A in the Canarias proved negative. Results for these latest cases will take a minimum of 48 hours.

The construction site of the new hospital has long been a source of exasperation and heartbreak to residents in the South of Tenerife. While it sits there as dead as any ghost town, residents in the South are sent North to join increasingly long queues for treatment up there.

Forward appointments at the current clinic at the Mahon site are for months in the future. My boy has a squinting habit. He peers from under his furrowed brow like a mouse keeking from under a rock and while I suspect this is a habit he’s picked up from watching me squint myopically at the television, I still need to know for sure. There was a news story not so long ago on a little girl who looked perfectly normal, except that in one photograph of her the light reflects differently from one of her eyes. Luckily this was noticed and the girl examined by doctors who found and treated a brain tumour.

With this story stored away in my memory box I now have the image of a plum-sized malignancy growing silently in my boy’s head. But that’s all right. I’ve got an appointment for him in May.

May?

You always have the option to go private, which in this case I did. It cost me €90 and three hours of my time at Clinica Verde for an eye specialist to tell me that my boy’s vision is 20/20, there are no sinister shadows lurking behind his eyes and that his squinting is most likely caused by a dust allergy which is irritating his eyelids. Given that I suppose they will tell me the same thing in May, he would have suffered unnecessary discomfort till then.

Anyway, rumblings from on high indicate that whatever problems caused the close down of the El Mahon obra seem to have been resolved. Work is due to start again and to be completed sometime in 2011.

About bloody time!

So okay, last night was not the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had. Around about the time when most people are so deeply into REM sleep that their eyeballs are doing somersaults, I was scraping little bits of vomit off the kids’ ladder. My son had not told a lie when woke me to say he had been sick everywhere. It was all over his bed and on every rung of the ladder both kids use to get to their high rise beds. He had fountained from on high and liberally splattered the floor, including quite possibly the cat as I have not seen hide not hair of her since.

After a quick that’ll-have-to-do type clean up and bundling the little guy back to bed with me, I maybe got a half hour shuteye before he rocketed out of bed clutching his mouth. He just made it to the loo before Vesuvius struck again. Poor lad. He wasn’t well at all and so the night went on. When he finally dropped off into a deep sleep I thought I could at last get some sleep myself but then it was the turn of my daughter. “Mummm..” she said shaking me gently, ‘…my throat’s sore.”

Brilliant. By morning I had saddlebags under my eyes that John Wayne would have found very useful but I at least had the opportunity to test Dr. Deadpan’s immediate medical appointment promises. Turned out he was true to his word and rather than be subjected to the disgusted tutting and head-shaking reserved for those who have the nerve to take their sick children to the clinic as an emergency I was the smug owner of two back to back appointments for this very morning.

I wondered if the grumpy doctor would actually smile upon me as he presented me with my two green cards as a reward for following the system. Unfortunately, I shall never know if Dr Deadpan is capable of an impish grin because it seems he has gone. Sitting in his place behind the doctor’s desk was a wee plump lady that looked as if she’d wandered in off the street in search of a cup of tea. No doctor’s jacket and a bit of a slap dash way about handling the instruments between each child had me a bit concerned.

Later on I saw her with a colleague in a local cafe. I couldn’t decide whether it was worse that the doctor had not worn a jacket for the consultation with my kids or that her colleague was wearing one now – in a public place. That’s not right, surely? But it was when I saw the stethoscope coiled on the cafe table between the two that I really thought ‘Come back, Dr. Deadpan. All is forgiven.’

The man might have been a grumpy sod but he was on obsessively clean grumpy sod with a sparklingly white jacket. I’m quite sure he would not have been seen dead gadding about in a public cafe, slinging his stethoscope about willy-nilly. On the other hand, the new doctor seems to have done away with the manic red-yellow-green appointment card system so she can’t be all bad.