Children at risk as swine flu hotline could mask other illnesses

Children’s health could be at risk from a swine flu hotline, after a girl was diagnosed with the pandemic disease when she actually had meningitis. Parents were today warned that the launch of the national hotline could leave children at risk from other potentially fatal infections, as symptoms of swine flu could mask other serious illnesses. As tens of thousands will rely on the hotline, NHS Direct or online symptom-checkers for a diagnosis, doctors fear people with other conditions could “fall through the cracks.”

Gemma Drury, from Derbyshire was diagnosed with swine flu over the phone and by a doctor who visited her home. It was not until her second visit to hospital that the 17 year-old was diagnosed with meningitis. The Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) said the swine flu pandemic could lead to a rise in meningitis cases, because flu lowers immunity levels. It warned that the early symptoms of meningitis and blood infections, which mainly affect children, are very similar to those of flu. The National Flu Service, special telephone line to diagnose cases of swine flu and give out treatment, is expected to be working by the end of this week. By tomorrow, there will also be a website that people can use to diagnose themselves from home. But the call centre’s 1,500 staff is not medically trained to diagnose symptoms. Instead they will use a computerised questionnaire and give out vouchers for drug treatment where needed. And the doctor who drew up the questionnaire that call centre staff will use said that it had been designed to pick up cases of meningitis and septicaemia but that it was not fail-safe.

GP Peter Holden, a swine flu expert for the British Medical Association told the Independent newspaper: “The questionnaire is designed to weed out the 999 threats, like meningitis, right at the start. “But this is mass medicine. It is inevitable that one or two will fall through the cracks. If you are getting hundreds of thousands of calls a day it is the only way to cope.” The Department of Health said cases of meningitis were “very low” but it would still advise parents of children under five, who are most at risk, to stay in touch with their GP. Parents with babies aged less than 12 months who develop symptoms will be advised to take them to the GP. The warnings came as Gordon Brown sought to reassure the public that the NHS was continuing to cope with the flu pandemic. He said: “The NHS is continuing to cope well, but as swine flu cases have started to increase, we have needed to give anti-virals more quickly.”

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children