Archive - Sep 2010

Recently, over 100,000 people have been reported with the swine flu. Over 58,000
assessments were made by the National Pandemic Flu Service, of which 89% were completed on the Internet, and 5,584 courses of Tami flu were collected.

A professor at a Virginia Drug Rehab facillity was asked about the measures that were put in place for those with long term maintenance conditions, such as drug addicts, those that are in Drug Rehab. and those who are on dialysis of the kidneys,
should there be a pandemic. He answered that they were encouraging every local NHS
organization to look carefully at the people who are vulnerable and all those with long term conditions. There has recently been guidance produced on the people who would be vulnerable in the case of an emergency, but they are working on something more specific for people with health issues.

The term vulnerable is critical since the NHS is in the process of preparing a list of those who need to be prioritized for the vaccines. This will include the diabetics, the elderly, and the young, but this is the first time that it has been suggested that people on methadone would be placed on the front of the list. They won’t confirm that people on methadone treatment are classified as people with long term conditions and that the actual priority of groups has yet to be decided.