Swine Flu scare hits Daman
Noel Gama
number don't even know about it!
People speak more about vegetables being more expensive than chicken
than about the drought.
But everyone's scared about the swine flu. Who wouldn't given our
public health system?
Noel Gama
Daman
Gerard Fernandes
On Mon, 2009-08-10 at 22:50 -0700, Noel Gama wrote:
> But everyone's scared about the swine flu. Who wouldn't given our
> public health system?
Well you know Noel, take it from me, it's much, much better in India
than it is in the UK. Why? Because health care is affordable. The
average Indian doesn't need health insurance! What can that mean other
than that health care is affordable and every average Indian can save
enough for their health care needs?
Over here, in the UK, health care may be free. But look at how it works.
The GP is incentivised (read bonus) to not send you to the hospital. And
the GP will do nothing but a preliminary examination, often just looking
at you - not even palpating you!
After seeing this, I have had to come to the conclusion that the GPs of
the UK are blessed with X-ray vision. Thats the only way to explain how
they simply look at you and say: "O you're fine, absolutely fine!"
In this country, you get medical treatment instantly only if:
a. you're pregnant
b. you're a toddler
c. you're about to die.
Little wonder then that most people end up dying before being treated!
If you're over 65, try getting an annual health examination from your
GP. Good luck with that!
At least in India, you can pay for it and do it every year - whenever
you feel like it. Here, you need medical insurance even for that annual
check-up!
So, don't worry about swine-flu in India - you people there are
guaranteed to get to see a real Doctor (as opposed to us having to go
online or on the phone and speak to unqualified call-center staff), have
real examinations (read, blood, stool or whatever else is required) as
opposed to us having to rely on our X-ray sighted GPs and call-center
staff, and get real treatment in hospitals if required - as opposed to
us having to wait until we're about to die before dialing 999.
Cheers
Gerry
Noel Gama
There is an article in the Economic Times today titled, "Flying with
flu: Indian bandobast better than UK" and confirms everything you've
said!
But what is frightening is that there are only around 120 test labs in
India and it's reported that it takes 24 hours for a batch of 40
samples to be tested!
Tamiflu is controlled here too.
Another thing is that according to reports in the papers, it is
alleged that negligence on the part of doctors/hospitals resulted in
the deaths of the first victims.
On Aug 11, 11:58 am, Gerard Fernandes <gerard.fernan...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> < 1KViewDownload
Gerard Fernandes
>
> But what is frightening is that there are only around 120 test labs in
> India and it's reported that it takes 24 hours for a batch of 40
> samples to be tested!
Well I'd take that with a pinch of salt. Any qualified pathologist
should be able to spot the swine-flu virus from a standard flu test.
It's just a mild variation of an existing virus.
>
> Tamiflu is controlled here too.
I'd guess that's because of the huge global demand. This is a
proprietary drug and is probably protected by patents. This wouldn't be
the case for a generic drug. The solution is really to crack down on
pharmaceutical patents to prevent such monopolies and artificial
shortages.
At the end of the day, it's better in India because of a lot of other
things - socio-economical mostly - rather than because of what the
government is doing. It's better by accident - not design.
Because of India's socio-economic structure (low average per-capita
income and low cost of living) and the effect the market has on keeping
prices in control (lots of doctors in urban and semi-urban areas mean
the prices have to be competitive), health care is surprisingly
accessible in India. Thats the core reason why anything related to
health care is better in India.
Noel Gama
colleges, theatre, closed in Mumbai. Defence hospitals to open four
labs to test swine flu cases.
Hoarding and selling of spurious Tamiflu reported.
Daman: According to Gujarat Samachar, two swine flu patients were
admitted in the PHC in Daman and later sent to Baroda! One was a
'foreign' woman and the other a student studying in Pune.
On Aug 12, 11:18 am, Gerard Fernandes <gerard.fernan...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> < 1KViewDownload
Gerard Fernandes
big enough to own their own patents, eh?
They got where they are today by "reverse-engineering" patented drugs -
taking advantage of the intentionally weak patent protection (one that
I'm a big fan of) regime in India.
I suppose now that they have their own patents, they will want to put
pressure on India to strengthen the patent regime.
Instead of reverse-engineering Tami-Flu and flooding the market with a
cheap generic alternative.
But I'm sure someone else in India will reverse-engineer the drug and
have a generic version out soon enough. :)
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Noel Gama
Bangalore's first victim.
Price of masks in Daman itself has shot up from Rs:100 to Rs:300 in
the last 24 hours.
On Aug 14, 2:45 am, Gerard Fernandes <gerard.fernan...@gmail.com>
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Gerard Fernandes
stay home. Thats the way to avoid spreading it.
Thats a good thing here - you are _expected_ to stay home if you have
the flu. Or even something as small as a cold.
Anyway, this flu is just a mutation of a common flu strain. All healthy
individuals can easily build up immunity to it. The one's who have died
so far (at least here) have all had underlying health problems. To date,
there has not been a single, healthy individual succumbing to it.
It's likely to be the same in India, although awareness of underlying
health problems is typically low over there.