AVIAN FLU
Clinic was over by 12.30 pm just now. Had to rush and grab a quick lunch and then rush to the department for a briefing on Avian Flu. Apparently my hospital has been designated (again) as a centre of referral for any possible Avian Flu outbreak. Now that there has been a genocide of some chickens in Gombak, everyone is getting a bit jittery. H5N1 is here!!!!!!
Which reminded me of the SARS outbreak a couple of years ago. I was a medical officer in Seremban Hospital at the time and we were so darn short of staff (actually, we are always short of staff!). So, we had to do 1 week on call each during the outbreak. Basically, if there were any patients admitted into the quarantine ward during the call, we will have to attend to the patient. Truth be told, there weren't all that many patients and each of us prayed fervently that there would be no patients during our calls.
My prayers failed me at one point (I think God wanted to teach me something, I guess) and lo and behold, a Punjabi man decided to take a train trip to Singapore, just like that! Apparently he had an eye appointment at the Tan Tock Sing Hospital there (we later found out that his appointment was postponed to another date, which he knew and forgot!). As if our eye doctors here are not good enough for him. He went despite knowing that there was an advisory against travel to the republic.
Anyway, he was already running a temperature when he stepped onto the train to Singapore (at the time, there were SARS cases in Singapore); in fact he was refused entry at the custom check and he returned on the next train. Unfortunately, for me, he came back even more feverish and promptly came to the hospital, and since he fulfilled the criteria...well, technically he was in Singapore, even though it was just at the customs office, he was admitted.
That's when my woes started. In order to see him, I had to shower (in the royal ward, no less; since the royal ward was converted into the SARS ward) before seeing him. I had to wear this space suit thing complete with long gloves and head visor. It felt like a personal sauna and I was sweating like a creature of porcine descend (politically correct statement). I had to take his history, examine him, take all the bloods, discard the space suit, shower again before going out of the ward.
Taking history from the patient was an extended course in patience and fortitude. He couldn't remember much and he got all his dates wrong. I don't blame him, he was as old as my grandma.
And I had to see him 3 times a day! Imagine how many times I had to shower (and use the royal potty) just to see him. He stayed in the ward for 8 days! S0 I had 24 showers in 8 days on top of my normal showers at home. Sigh! At the end of the ordeal, I felt like I had a extreme makeover. All the cells on my body were new...the old has been dutifully showered away. I was fully and truly desquamated.
I just hope this nightmare isn't going to recur with the avian flu.
And no, he didn't have SARS.
Clinic was over by 12.30 pm just now. Had to rush and grab a quick lunch and then rush to the department for a briefing on Avian Flu. Apparently my hospital has been designated (again) as a centre of referral for any possible Avian Flu outbreak. Now that there has been a genocide of some chickens in Gombak, everyone is getting a bit jittery. H5N1 is here!!!!!!
Which reminded me of the SARS outbreak a couple of years ago. I was a medical officer in Seremban Hospital at the time and we were so darn short of staff (actually, we are always short of staff!). So, we had to do 1 week on call each during the outbreak. Basically, if there were any patients admitted into the quarantine ward during the call, we will have to attend to the patient. Truth be told, there weren't all that many patients and each of us prayed fervently that there would be no patients during our calls.
My prayers failed me at one point (I think God wanted to teach me something, I guess) and lo and behold, a Punjabi man decided to take a train trip to Singapore, just like that! Apparently he had an eye appointment at the Tan Tock Sing Hospital there (we later found out that his appointment was postponed to another date, which he knew and forgot!). As if our eye doctors here are not good enough for him. He went despite knowing that there was an advisory against travel to the republic.
Anyway, he was already running a temperature when he stepped onto the train to Singapore (at the time, there were SARS cases in Singapore); in fact he was refused entry at the custom check and he returned on the next train. Unfortunately, for me, he came back even more feverish and promptly came to the hospital, and since he fulfilled the criteria...well, technically he was in Singapore, even though it was just at the customs office, he was admitted.
That's when my woes started. In order to see him, I had to shower (in the royal ward, no less; since the royal ward was converted into the SARS ward) before seeing him. I had to wear this space suit thing complete with long gloves and head visor. It felt like a personal sauna and I was sweating like a creature of porcine descend (politically correct statement). I had to take his history, examine him, take all the bloods, discard the space suit, shower again before going out of the ward.
Taking history from the patient was an extended course in patience and fortitude. He couldn't remember much and he got all his dates wrong. I don't blame him, he was as old as my grandma.
And I had to see him 3 times a day! Imagine how many times I had to shower (and use the royal potty) just to see him. He stayed in the ward for 8 days! S0 I had 24 showers in 8 days on top of my normal showers at home. Sigh! At the end of the ordeal, I felt like I had a extreme makeover. All the cells on my body were new...the old has been dutifully showered away. I was fully and truly desquamated.
I just hope this nightmare isn't going to recur with the avian flu.
And no, he didn't have SARS.
posted by Jimbo @ 2/22/2006 02:45:00 PM
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