Swine flu after all

After finishing off the previous blog, the GP called and let us know that Lucy does in fact have swine flu. Since we were informed that we were clear on Sunday, I am not sure we have done much for the government's containment strategy! I fortunately stayed home to work as I was concerned about our accountant Dinusha catching even the normal flu as she is 12 weeks pregnant.
Obviously a key message for my general practice- a positive test for influenza A is a reason to keep a level of quarantine up whilst waiting for swine flu results, not a dismissal of swine flu; removing of masks etc when my other daughter visited the practice with tonsillitis may have also been somewhat premature; and getting some concrete information on the quarantine required for all of us while we wait for communication from DHS. As hubby has been going to work Monday and Tuesday, is quarantine for Wednesday and Thursday going to mean anything.

I guess it is a lesson in going with your gut feeling and the silent spread of this virus- Lucy had no known contact with a confirmed case but my gut still said get her tested as it was such a sudden onset and obviously highly infectious amongst her friends (only one of whom have been tested to my knowledge- one GP said it wasn't required as like us there was no confirmed case contact). Waiting 4 days for the test result has probably not helped the spread of the virus! Having to pay for the test (need to have contact with a known confirmed case to not pay) and the Tamiflu (similar) made me very conscious of the fact that I could and felt it was warranted - despite being made to feel every inch the paranoid mum! As I said in the previous post- I was not worried for Lucy but the spread of the virus.
My feeling is that we must be approaching the sustain phase of the virus any moment now in Victoria. Despite the measures in place, the virus is circulating widely. Many families are not testing and I can only imagine the pressure some of the practices must be feeling to manage the requests for tests etc.
My hope is that our voluntary quarantine avoided someone vulnerable getting this virus before a vaccine is available, hope that our few days of thinking we were not affected has not harmed anyone and we will rejoice in getting our contact wiht teh swine flu over nice and early!