|
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has described as "ludicrous" claims that swine flu will kill at least 10,000 Australians without vaccination.
More than 20 people have died and 10,000 people have the virus - health authorities say hospitals are already at capacity and they are worried the system will not be able to cope.
The concerns come as the company developing the swine flu vaccine, CSL, begins selecting hundreds of volunteers in Adelaide to undergo clinical trials next week.
Health authorities say swine flu is becoming the main flu this winter but the difference is that no-one has immunity to it, so there is a greater chance people will develop complications like pneumonia.
Forty-nine-year-old Jonathan Bass contracted swine flu on a flight from Sydney to Perth two weeks ago. Within days, he found himself in the emergency ward of Royal Perth Hospital fighting for his life.
Mr Bass is a unique case for doctors because has no underlying medical problems.
"I wasn't feeling that well and all of a sudden it hit without really any warning on Wednesday morning; I just couldn't move," he said.
"I was so sick and crook, I just had totally no energy, and couldn't get up anywhere, so they called the ambulance and took me off to hospital.
"And then when it got to Thursday night I was quite worried about the way I was feeling because I was having real problems breathing, and they were quite concerned."
Mr Bass said he thought he was close to dying.
"Once they found out it was swine flu, they treated me for the swine flu and I had pneumonia too, so once they started treating that I did start feeling a bit better," he said.
"But it did take still a little while before I started being able to breathe properly and get on top of it."
'August will be the worst'
Infectious diseases expert Professor Raina MacIntyre is part of the influenza advisory group to Australia's chief medical officer Jim Bishop.
She says August will be the worst month for swine flu, with thousands of deaths.
"If you look at deaths that are directly related to influenza and also to pneumonia, which is the most common complication of influenza, we could be looking at anything in the ball park of 10,000 deaths to 20,000 deaths," she said.
Currently there are 123 people with swine flu in hospital, the majority of those are in Victoria. But Professor MacIntyre says hospitals across the country are under intense pressure.
"It means there will be significant bed block, emergency departments will be full, intensive care beds and other high dependency beds will be full," she said.
"And there'll be longer waiting times, longer length of stay of patients, and difficulty moving patients through the system and making room for the new patients that need admission. |
|