I should have written this daily, like a dairy, as I am a swine flu denier turned into a believer by the very touch of the disease. Instead, I’m just going to highlight a few stages in how I have perceived this flu.
This log may be written post factum, but it is true and it may make useful reading for those in the Northern Hemisphere, who have not come across this illness in the cold season. I have. The swine flu struck New Zealand, my country, during the Australian winter. There may be a vaccine ready for the likes of the North Americans, Europeans and Asians but I wonder how many will get it in time and how effective is going to be.
The calendar bellow is approximated but the chronological order is right. I apologize for any things that may have been misplaced in this article as they rushed out of my memory.
April 2009:
– I get the seasonal flu shot and I’m not supposed to be affected by the ordinary flu this winter;
May 2009:
– First serious news of a swine flu epidemic are originating in Mexico and start spreading around; they eventually rich New Zealand;
– I get sick and spend three days at home, blaming them on the vaccine taking effect;
– jokes on this flu appear first, then a few cases
– some schools with a few cases close for a day or two;
June 2009:
– mockoblog.com posts pictures related to the swine flu (still accessible on our site) and blames it on the pharmaceutical companies who are the main beneficiaries when it comes to selling anti-viral drugs and vaccines;
– more and more of my work buddies take sick leave and other people I know stay at home with “the cold”;
– my preschooler son is ill for about two weeks and three doctors give him three different treatments, none working;
– this international flue riches pandemic level, which as high as they get;
– one day at work I feel feverish and I develop sore throat, headache and cough in a matter of hours, I drive to my doc a he comes out with a mask on his face and checks me by my car, outside in the parking in front of his medical practice (he finds me good enough to stay home for five days with nothing else than pain killers; I want to go to work because in this country no work equals no money but I have to stay at home);
– a swine flu free phone number is launched in New Zealand and my town opens a Pandemic Flu Centre which is the only one to be contacted by those who display flu-like symptoms (patients with flu are not allowed to see their normal GPs);
– toys and other objects that could facilitate contamination are removed from public places and institutions like banks, large stores, medical centres and get replaced by bottles of antiseptic (many of them manufactured by 3M – have you heard of this brand before?);
– some places offer free surgical masks, not many;
– my wife is heavily pregnant;
July 2009:
– my older son books his holiday in Europe (where it’s summer, unlike down here) but he runs a fever and sleeps a lot;
– statistics on swine flu cases find their way up the news ladder in this country with the first confirmed deaths;
– it is announced that test will not be carried on all suspected cases because there are too many anyway;
– my wife starts coughing two days before having the baby;
– my older son feels better but still coughs a lot;
– in hospital with our new born daughter my wife tries not to be heard coughing because she fears both could be sent home;
– they come home three days after birth and my wife runs a very high fever, so we call the swine flue dedicated line and ask what is to be done when a mother with a new born has flu symptoms; we are basically told not to worry,;
– next day my wife goes to the pandemic flu centre and demands to be told what the flue does to little babies (nobody seems to know); she is finally given a test and sent home;
– next day her GP calls us with the news that the test could be positive;
– next day the confirmation arrives so my wife has the swine flu and at that stage there are about 300 confirmed cases in this country of about 4,000,000 (only about five death though); no treatment is given to her whatsoever;
– medical authorities reckon that 80% of the population will get this type of flu;
– my older son travels freely to Europe and his temperature test is passed in an Asian airport; we don’t know if and how may people in how many countries he may have passed the germ to (perhaps none);
– our preschool son feels better and can go back into community;
– I go with this younger son to the flue centre to get tested but this is not necessary, as we are presumed to have had the infection; we are not given any medicine but the pandemic Flu Centre is quite SF-like, everyone wears masks and what seem to be disposable suits, there are guards at the entrance and eight pairs of doctors and nurses work in small cardboard-like boxes with truck loads of patients in a very efficient way; I am told each team sees about 200 cases per day; what’s more touching is that all this centre is improvised in a large ex-garage, bleak post-industrial building and the atmosphere is so much like M*A*S*H that we take photos inside
– news of dangers for pregnant women and unborn babies emerge from Australia while in New Zealand statistics run hot: nine out of ten cases of flu are “swine” and only one “seasonal”;
– I calculate my own stats: if 8 doctors see 200 patients a day this makes 1600; of those 1440 may have the swine flu; if these ones have an average of two other people close to them, due to the highly infectious virus, those also have to be counted, which brings the daily total to 4320; in two months this may be about 260,000 people; my town’s population is just over 400,000;
– one day I get very sick again, this time I drive home and I check my temperature: 36.3 Celsius at 6:00 PM and 39.9 at 9:00 PM, after taking Panadol (Paracetamol); at night I almost cough my soul out of my chest, and I have severe pains, including o huge zone in my right lung;
– next morning I’m at the Pandemic Flu Centre again and I am told that this type of flu can come back; I feel better, though the pneumonia-like symptoms and some fever are still there; I get Tamiflu (not a prescription from the pharmacy, the doc gives the pills to me directly and asks me to take them for five days); I need to go to work as I have used all my annual holiday with this illness and there’s no way an employer would cover the medical costs and accept the losses of the pandemic, at least not in this country; the doctor writes a note and says: “It is one of the few times when I get to issue an order. I ORDER you to stay in isolation for five days. I’m sorry about your employment, there’s nothing we can do about it”;
– I spend five days at home taking Tamiflu every 12 hours and feeling quite healthy, just coughing; my family seems healthy as well, including the on e travelling in Europe;
August 2009:
– we’re all coughing a bit;
– I lost two weeks of work which pretty much means I have to not take much paid holiday for a coupe of years;
– we know now that the swine flu is not good for the babies and their mums;
– given how infectious it is, in a scarcely populated country like New Zealand, I estimate that the swine flu has already affected 20-35% of the population, with higher impact in urban centres; lately small swine flue medical bases are closing down and the large ones will follow next week (I guess all the big orders for Tamiflu and the yet-to-be-developed vaccine have been placed);
– our newborn daughter has not been seen by any medical professional in her first five weeks since she left the hospital because we were considered “lepers” after one of us was confirmed with the swine flu; she now coughs and has mild fever;
– my medical insurance does not cover this type of disease, after all a milder than normal influenza;
– I pay 22% taxes on my wages and, on top of this, 12.5% taxes on everything I buy.
What country are you going to be living in when the swine flu strikes your family, mate?