Swine Flu (H1N1) is being widely over-diagnosed!
.
AS MANY as 9
out of 10 sick
patients phoning
the swine flu
hotline have been
misdiagnosed,
a study has revealed.
Only THREE out of 30 patients
told they had it actually tested
positive for the virus later –
while FIVE people had other
life-threatening illnesses
which had been missed.
One patient had MALARIA,
three had the deadly brain
bug MENINGITIS and another
had the serious
HEART CONDITION
tuberculous pericarditis.
.
____
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None had been
previously diagnosed.
About half had taken
anti-viral drug Tamiflu
after contacting the National
Pandemic Flu Service,
the study by the Royal
Liverpool University
Hospital found.
Researchers said call
handlers needed to be
better trained and the
computer program used to
diagnose swine flu improved
as it has been wrongly
identifying too many cases.
Dr Mike Beadsworth,
who led the study,
said:
“Some of the patients
could have died because
they had conditions
such as malaria.”
“The Government should
not scrap the hotline but
it needs to be reassessed.”
At the height of the epidemic
in August the lines were
being staffed by 16-year-olds
waiting for their GCSE results.
One GP,
who did not want
to be named,
told researchers a patient
had DIED of meningitis after
an incorrect phone diagnosis.
Another doc in Derbyshire
said a three-year-old given
Tamiflu by the hotline actually
had bacterial pneumonia.
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