Swine flu fears ease in Lahardane

Swine flu fears ease in Lahardane


Doctor maintains nine football team members have fully recovered from virus

Edwin McGreal

A LAHARDANE-based doctor has downplayed the threat posed by swine flu after nine members of the Lahardane Junior Gaelic football team were struck low by the virus last week.
Dr Paul Nolan treated a number of players for the Lahardane men’s team and diagnosed them as having H1N1 influenza, commonly referred to as swine flu. It resulted in their County Junior Championship game with Ballina B being called off at the weekend.
However Dr Nolan dismissed the widespread fears that this news might engender, explaining that the players have all recovered and that the virus would simply have to run its course.
“All the players made a good recovery and will be able to play this weekend,” he told The Mayo News. “They bounced back quickly, in much the same way as with normal influenza. The difference here is that it is out of sync because it is not happening in winter and that it is affecting a younger age profile, that is all.”
Such thoughts are clearly at odds with a public opinion greatly concerned by the fears of a further spread of swine flu but Dr Nolan, who also works for Westdoc, reveals that there have been several cases in Mayo in recent weeks, most of which have been straightforward.
“Swine flu has been all over Mayo for the last number of weeks. It is particularly prominent in people in the age group from 15-30. They have an impaired immune system, one that is not as developed and as immune to influenza as people of an older age. Young, athletic male or females are more likely to come down with it but it is nothing major. Problems might arise if people have underlying health problems.
“I work with Westdoc and I have seen quite a number of cases. Normally influenza runs from December to March. This is six months out of phase, it has come in a different phase and it is a younger group who are getting it.
“Two weeks ago was when I first encountered it. I couldn’t believe the amount that was coming. It is a minor endemic in Mayo. It will be all over the area for six to eight weeks and will then just disappear.”
The first publicly confirmed case of swine flu in Mayo was that which affected a child at Breaffy NS, outside Castlebar which was the subject of much media attention, locally and nationally. Each classmate of the affected child was given a course of tamiflu but Dr Nolan believes that much of the fear has been created by ‘media hysteria’.
“The players were down for three or four days and all made spontaneous recovery without using tamiflu, just using basic ibuprofen and paracetemol. But they would not be fit for games for a week or so.
“Tamiflu is not of great use. It has been on the market for some time and even when it is free, people have not been using it. The general reaction so far has been a little bit over the top. A lot of it has been from media hysteria. Daily bulletins from the HSE, while they have been informative, haven’t helped really.
“By the end of September it will calm down because the phase will have run its course. There is all this worry about going to school but it will calm down after that. There have not been a lot of serious illnesses.”
Lahardane are the first sports team in Mayo to have had a game postponed because members of their team have been affected by swine flu. Mayo GAA County Board Secretary Seán Feeney says their decision to pull the game was ‘immediate’.
“This was pretty severe because it affected so many of the team so we decided they should sit it out and we won’t rush the game being played, it will probably be on Sunday week. Things like this can happen. You wouldn’t want to be responsible for spreading something like this so we took immediate action.”