*Cases reported by The World Health Organization (WHO) are as of April 25, 2010
International News
Worried parents overwhelmed many ER’s before the H1N1 pandemic even broke out
A pair of studies presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in Vancouver, B.C. have found that before the outbreak of H1N1, fear of the flu was already sending large numbers of patients to hospital emergency departments. Most of the visits were from parents bringing their children.
The report confirms what many doctors had already suspected. “Long before we had flu activity, we had record volumes in our emergency department, most of whom were the worried well or the mildly ill," said Dr. Brian Currie, vice president at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "We're talking six to eight times our usually busy ER volume. We have the largest emergency room capacity in New York City and probably the 5th largest in the United States—so if we were getting overwhelmed, you can imagine how smaller hospitals and institutions were feeling.”
Dr. William McDonnell, who led the study, worked clinically during the pandemic and said he felt the study showed, “that media messages about public health issues affect people's behavior. I'd like to see the media and the medical community working together to make sure we inform the public as accurately as possible when risks exist—and also when they do not.” University of Minnesota CIDRAP
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