Swine flu hits Cavan as dozens of cases are diagnosed

Swine flu has hit Co. Cavan, the Anglo-Celt can confirm, with scores of cases diagnosed all over the county in the past week alone, in towns including Ballyconnell, Bailieboro and Virginia. As of last Wednesday, doctors are no longer taking swabs from suspected victims because the laboratory responsible for analysing the tests can no longer cope with the workload from all over the country. Dr. Michael McConville, who has practices in Ballyhaise and Cavan, told The Anglo-Celt yesterday (Tuesday) that swine flu is "definitely in Cavan now and it's going to stay". He has diagnosed 22 new cases in the past week - two of those were among the last to be confirmed on Wednesday of last week when swab tests were still being accepted. However, Dr. McConville is warning the public to stay calm and not become alarmed as the flu is generally treatable and manageable with paracetamol and over-the-counter flu reliever medicines. Only 20% of those contracting swine flu need to take Tamiflu to fight the illness, he said. The mother of a 16-year-old boy who was diagnosed with swine flu in Cavan last week said that she knew immediately it was the swine flu. The family, who do not wish to be named, collected their son, a fit and healthy football player, from the cinema at around 11pm on Tuesday night. But by the time they made the short drive home, he was "burning up". The concerned mother said that it wasn't until the following night that the worst of the symptoms appeared. "He was very sick. What really alerted me was the pains. He was crying in the middle of the night and this is a 16-year-old who has had plenty of knocks and sports injuries and wouldn't cry lightly. I knew immediately then it was the swine flu." Their GP diagnosed swine flu and gave them a prescription for Tamiflu but advised the boy not to take the drug unless he felt he couldn't fight the illness with normal flu products. "It was the worst dose of flu I've ever seen," said his mother, though she conceded: "It's not as serious as people are being led to believe." The boy, who has not been abroad recently, is recovering well. Another young woman, who tested positive for swine flu in the Ballyconnell area, had been at the Oxygen music festival in Punchestown. Dr. McConville told The Anglo-Celt that anyone who has a genuine flu is highly likely to have swine flu, as that is the strain of flu (H1N1) around at the moment. He explained that there are about 100 sentinel practices around the country responsible for tracking and monitoring infections, and can give an accurate representational sample of the level of any particular outbreak. In the week to last Friday, they reported 1,500 new confirmed cases of swine flu. Up to the middle of July, there were just 20 cases confirmed. The Ballyhaise and Cavan based GP, Dr. Michael McConville, has said that the swine flu will cause problems in the winter as the cold weather will cause a surge in new cases. "We're going to have a major problem in the winter, there's no doubt about it," said Dr. McConville. He anticipated that the vaccine, which was to be available in October to begin vaccinating the population against the strain, will not be available before January as clinical trials are ongoing. In the meantime, the doctor is advising people to have their normal flu vaccine and to stay at home if they suspect they have the swine flu. If normal flu products are not helping and a high temperature persists, Dr. McConville said that sufferers could ring their GPs for a Tamiflu prescription. He strongly advises against taking the Tamiflu unless necessary as it could encourage mutation of the strain, perhaps making the vaccine useless. In normal flu season, about 150 people per 100,000 of population contract the flu, but Dr. McConville predicts that at the pandemic levels "that we are now facing" that figure would be between 500 and 1,000 cases per 100,000 of population. "Pandemics always have a second wave; that happens in the second year when the virus may have possible mutations. That's when it's essential to have the vaccine, at that point," Dr. McConville pointed out. Information on swine flu, its symptoms and what to do if you suspect you may have contracted the illness, is available at hse.ie or call freephone 1800-94-11-00.