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Austria on the verge of pandemic, experts warn

By David Rogers

Austria is on the verge of a swine-flu pandemic, top medical experts have warned.

Christoph Wenisch, a specialist on infections at Vienna�s Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital, said yesterday (Weds): "It will be the first pandemic of any kind for most of us. We are at the beginning of one in Austria, but we certainly do not know everything."

And tropical medicine expert Herwig Kollaritsch said: "We are at the beginning of a pandemic. We are seeing an increase in swine flu cases. Italy and the Scandinavian countries have [also] been massively affected. The European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) has said a pandemic will be a highly-significant event for Europe."

They warned that the pandemic could peak in January next year and that it could place an overwhelming burden on the health care sector.

Wenisch warned that the experience of other countries that had already had large numbers of swine flu cases had shown that intensive care beds could become scarce, making it impossible for doctors to take the measures they wanted to.

"A national emergency has been declared in the USA, but we are reacting listlessly," he said.

Meanwhile the experts advised people with swine flu to stay in bed, avoid contact with others, take Tamiflu as soon as they could and use antibiotics for bronchitis or pneumonia.

They also warned bacterial infection could follow viral infection and put people�s lives in jeopardy while those with chronic illnesses were especially at risk.

Meanwhile, the condition of two of three patients with swine flu at Salzburg provincial clinic (SALK) has improved, but a third remains in critical condition.

A spokesperson for the hospital said today a 41-year-old Bavarian man and a� 58-year-old Upper Austrian man had been taken off breathing machines and would slowly be awakened from artificial comas but that a 77-year-old man remained in critical condition.

An Innsbruck University Clinic spokesman said today the condition of the 39-year-old man from South Tyrol who was in intensive care with swine flu had improved and he may soon be woken from an artificial coma.

Meanwhile, vaccination stations are struggling to cope with the numbers of people coming for vaccination.

In Upper Austria, Physicians Chamber President Peter Niedermoser called for doctors to be able to vaccinate people in their offices. "We are hopelessly overwhelmed," he said.

The Celvapan vaccine used to immunise people from swine flu in Austria has side effects no worse than seasonal flu vaccine and works, Kollaritsch said yesterday evening.

He said the first of the two injections people should have were effective in 90 per cent of children, 85 per cent of adults aged 18 to 59 and in 72 per cent of those over 60 and called that "a very good safety profile." He added the vaccine began to provide immunity to swine flu in 10 to 14 days.

A total of 24 kindergartens and schools as well as a number of individual classes have closed in Austria because of swine flu.

There have been two deaths from swine flu so far in Austria.

A 39-year-old Romanian hospitalised with swine flu in Schwarzach in Salzburg�s Pongau region died on Tuesday this week.

Salzburg public-health director Christoph K�nig said the construction worker, who died of a heart attack, had already been very weak when he entered the hospital and died soon after he was put into intensive care.

An 11-year-old girl from South Tyrol, Italy, hospitalised in Innsbruck with swine flu died early this month after 10 days in intensive care. She had contracted a bacterial infection and was then infected by the swine flu virus A/H1N1.

Meanwhile Franz X. Heinz, the head of the Clinical Institute for Virology at Vienna Medical University, said yesterday there had been 10,800 cases of swine flu in the greater Vienna area in the last week.

He added that current information indicated a wave of swine flu had begun in Austria and that there had been a huge increase in the number of cases among people 14 years of age or younger.

The Austrian Society for Medical Care of Children and Adolescents said earlier this week all children should be immunised against both swine and seasonal flu. It said 50 per cent of swine flu victims were children and adolescents.

As a result of the spread of swine flu, the Statutory Social Insurance Association has decided that people can buy anti-viral medication Tamiflu with a doctor�s prescription.

Health-insurance funds will cover the cost of the vaccinations except for a fee of 4.90 Euros a dose. Doctors recommend that people receive two doses of the vaccine three weeks apart.

Austrian Times

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