Well I think it may be time for me to wade in to the mass outpouring off Swine Flu related stuff and throw in my own two penneth worth. Before I get going here are some links:

• The National Pandemic Flu Service (the official England get your tamiflu here government webpage)
• Everything you need to know (the official everything you need to know about flu according to the UK government)
• The Healthy Outlook Blog (a view on the situation from a pharmacist who is not me – perhaps slightly more coherent)
• The GPforHire Blog (a view from a GP, cynical or otherwise)
• We’re all probably doomed.. (my previous comments on the situation from back in May)

I seem to be on the outside looking in on this one, slowly watching rumour and a mix of information and mis-information spread like a companion to the virus itself. Reading stories in the press about being able to obtain more than one dose for yourself or that 100,000 people have come down with it in the past week and the official swine flu uk website encountering the equivalent of 9.2milliion hits an hour and crashing under the load.

Apparently we are one of the best equipped nations in the world to deal with this virus, with a plentiful stockpile of antivirals and contingency plans coming out of our ears. However, I read that the NHS is straining to deal with the situation, and I don’ t think this is down to the professionals of the various branches of the NHS being incompetent. I think it is more that as a nation we seem to be more prone to mass panic and hysteria over something that has been blown to apocalyptic proportions.

The government are probably trying to do their best with the situation even though it is nicely masking any and every bad news story about the government. Waiting until ‘the NHS was under heavy strain’ as Andy Burnham said, before implementing the national flu hotline probably wasn’t a wise move as that would and did almost guarentee that it too would be overloaded.

How many of those 100,000 who supposedly came down with the virus last week actually had it? and have now wasted their supply of medication on a cold. I have been told of a patient who phoned their GP to query whether they had flu and were asked to come in to have it checked out. They turned out to have pneumonia, I hope the national line can weed out cases like this as well rather than telling them to stay in bed and send their designated ‘ flu friend’ to go and collect their supply of precious Tamiflu.

Not that Tamiflu is that great, it helps lessen the likelihood of the nasty complications of the virus, but only actually shortens the duration of the illness by about 12 hours or so.

At the end of it all, Swine Flu is just that. Its flu the only difference from your normal year in year out seasonal flu is that we have not seen this type before so not enough people are immune to it to prevent it spreading widely and rapidly, and this will lead to the major problem with this virus that I don’t think is being focussed upon by the majority of people: when this thing really hits, and I still think it will be when the schools and universities go back, and the football season gets properly back into swing, and when everyone is getting down and low as the nights draw in october time, then a lot of people will be off work at the same time. That will be the big challenge, keeping everything runningsmoothly, including the healthcare services. So hopefully everyone has a plan for that, Tamiflu or not.

as the lyrics in the Divine Comedy song go: “here comes the flood, rivers of blood baby…”

enjoy.