Neuroscience
Yet another case from the UK:
Woman dies of meningitis after swine flu diagnosis
• Woman prescribed Tamiflu and paracetamol dies in hospital
• Son urges doctors to heed symptoms of other illnesses
Karen McVeigh
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 12 August 2009 17.02 BST
A man whose mother died of meningitis days after being misdiagnosed with swine flu has called on doctors to pay more heed to other illnesses when treating patients.
Jasvir Kaur Gill, 48, a mother of three from Leicester, began suffering from a sore throat and vomiting during the evening of Saturday 1 August.
She was told to take Tamiflu after a telephone diagnosis, but 12 hours later she suffered a heart attack and was taken to hospital.
She died without regaining consciousness, four days later.
An inquest, which opened today, heard how her death was caused by meningococcal septicaemia, or blood poisoning caused by meningitis.
After the hearing, her son Sukhvinder Gill, 25, said: "We said to the doctors in the hospital, everything these days seems to be about swine flu.
"You've got a sore throat, they tell you to take Tamiflu; you've got a headache, they tell you to take Tamiflu.
"Everyone seems to be swine flu, swine flu, swine flu. What she had were also symptoms of meningitis, but they didn't think of that."
Gill, an estate agent, said the family were "just trying to get by" but were full of questions over his mother's death.
He said he hoped her funeral on Friday would allow the family to start moving on.
"I don't feel angry yet. At the moment I just miss my mum. The cause of death is not a problem, it's just wondering if it could have been caught earlier.
"The doctor said it might not have made a difference, but we don't know that. If she had 12 more hours, they could have put antibiotics in her, which might have helped."
At the inquest, Gill told Leicester city coroner, Catherine Mason, that his mother started complaining of a sore throat but then vomited repeatedly throughout the night and at 5am, prompting her husband to call NHS Direct.
Gill said that, following conversations with both his father and mother, they were told to pick up some Tamiflu.
Read the full article
- Twitter As An Incubator Of Swine Flu Misinformation
xkcd Randall Munroe is not that far off... Foreign Policy's net.effect blog is one of many blogs with a story about this: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinformSat, 04/25/2009 - 5:56pmWho knew that swine flu could also infect Twitter? Yet this...
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From the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on 31 January 2008: Investigation of Progressive Inflammatory Neuropathy Among Swine Slaughterhouse Workers --- Minnesota, 2007---2008 [snip] "This report summarizes an ongoing investigation...
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From The New York Times:City Tackles Meningitis in Brooklyn By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA The New York Times 29 June 2006 City health officials yesterday announced a novel assault on a large meningitis outbreak in Brooklyn, seeking to vaccinate thousands of...
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From The New York Times:Wider Student Use Is Urged for New Meningitis Vaccine By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN The New York Times Published: May 27, 2005 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended yesterday wider use of a new meningitis vaccine...
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CDC Lifts Limits on Meningitis Vaccine By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (copyright) 16 September 2004 Filed at 1:20 p.m. ET ATLANTA (AP) -- Replenished supplies of a childhood meningitis vaccine has prompted health officials Thursday to lift a previous recommendation...
Neuroscience
Missing Meningitis in a Flaky/Dodgy Swine Flu System: Another Case
Yet another case from the UK:
Woman dies of meningitis after swine flu diagnosis
• Woman prescribed Tamiflu and paracetamol dies in hospital
• Son urges doctors to heed symptoms of other illnesses
Karen McVeigh
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 12 August 2009 17.02 BST
A man whose mother died of meningitis days after being misdiagnosed with swine flu has called on doctors to pay more heed to other illnesses when treating patients.
Jasvir Kaur Gill, 48, a mother of three from Leicester, began suffering from a sore throat and vomiting during the evening of Saturday 1 August.
She was told to take Tamiflu after a telephone diagnosis, but 12 hours later she suffered a heart attack and was taken to hospital.
She died without regaining consciousness, four days later.
An inquest, which opened today, heard how her death was caused by meningococcal septicaemia, or blood poisoning caused by meningitis.
After the hearing, her son Sukhvinder Gill, 25, said: "We said to the doctors in the hospital, everything these days seems to be about swine flu.
"You've got a sore throat, they tell you to take Tamiflu; you've got a headache, they tell you to take Tamiflu.
"Everyone seems to be swine flu, swine flu, swine flu. What she had were also symptoms of meningitis, but they didn't think of that."
Gill, an estate agent, said the family were "just trying to get by" but were full of questions over his mother's death.
He said he hoped her funeral on Friday would allow the family to start moving on.
"I don't feel angry yet. At the moment I just miss my mum. The cause of death is not a problem, it's just wondering if it could have been caught earlier.
"The doctor said it might not have made a difference, but we don't know that. If she had 12 more hours, they could have put antibiotics in her, which might have helped."
At the inquest, Gill told Leicester city coroner, Catherine Mason, that his mother started complaining of a sore throat but then vomited repeatedly throughout the night and at 5am, prompting her husband to call NHS Direct.
Gill said that, following conversations with both his father and mother, they were told to pick up some Tamiflu.
Read the full article
- Twitter As An Incubator Of Swine Flu Misinformation
xkcd Randall Munroe is not that far off... Foreign Policy's net.effect blog is one of many blogs with a story about this: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinformSat, 04/25/2009 - 5:56pmWho knew that swine flu could also infect Twitter? Yet this...
- Progressive Inflammatory Neuropathy (pin)
From the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on 31 January 2008: Investigation of Progressive Inflammatory Neuropathy Among Swine Slaughterhouse Workers --- Minnesota, 2007---2008 [snip] "This report summarizes an ongoing investigation...
- Meningitis
From The New York Times:City Tackles Meningitis in Brooklyn By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA The New York Times 29 June 2006 City health officials yesterday announced a novel assault on a large meningitis outbreak in Brooklyn, seeking to vaccinate thousands of...
- Meningococcal Disease And Menactra Vaccine
From The New York Times:Wider Student Use Is Urged for New Meningitis Vaccine By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN The New York Times Published: May 27, 2005 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended yesterday wider use of a new meningitis vaccine...
- Meningitis And Prevnar
CDC Lifts Limits on Meningitis Vaccine By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (copyright) 16 September 2004 Filed at 1:20 p.m. ET ATLANTA (AP) -- Replenished supplies of a childhood meningitis vaccine has prompted health officials Thursday to lift a previous recommendation...