Ministry admits errors in tackling swine flu

"The ministry failed to create confidence among people over its measures against the flu outbreak and the people were confused by its messages to cope with the pandemic," Dr Kamnuan Ungchoosak, a senior health expert at the Disease Control Department, told The Nation.

Since the type-A (H1N1) virus hit the country last May, the ministry had consistently told people that the virus was not more virulent than the seasonal flu. As a result of this message, people became complacent and thought that no one would die after infection. But in medical terms the message meant that the mortality rate was less than 1 per cent and some ill people could die if infected.

So, when the ministry reported the first deaths from the new flu, people no longer believed in its preventive measures.

"We have learned that next time we should tell the public that the virus is virulent rather than saying the virus is not virulent," Kamnuan said.

The public also did not trust the ministry after it reported that a group of Thai students, who had returned from Mexico, were free of the virus. However, laboratory tests showed they had contracted the new flu.

The ministry also failed to immediately report the first death to the public. This failure raised doubts in the minds of the public that the Public Health Ministry was hiding the truth.

In fact, the first death from the flu was a patient who had been hospitalised and later died at a private hospital. Kamnuan said the hospital did not report immediately that the patient had died.

"We came to know about it eight days after the patient had died at the private hospital," he said.

The ministry learned that using infrared thermal scanners to screen people with influenza-like illness at the country's main gateways, such as Suvarnabhumi Airport, was totally ineffective.

"The ministry thought that this machine could detect people with the new flu virus and check the pandemic. In fact, it was absolutely ineffective," he added.

Kamnuan said the ministry's health experts had tried to inform the government that there was no need to use the thermal scanner, but the government wanted to reassure the public that it had done something concrete. However, the result was the opposite.

As most people panicked about the type-A (H1N1) flu, the ministry again sent the wrong message by saying, "if any suspicious symptoms are found, people with the flu virus should be tested to confirm the infection".

Kamnuan said the ministry had omitted to tell the public that the lab test was only used for purposes of disease surveillance.

As a consequence of the wrong information, people flocked to hospitals to undergo blood tests, which affected medical services.

The ministry also failed to inform about the chances of fatality to risk groups such as pregnant women and people with obesity and chronic diseases to undergo treatment at hospitals immediately they showed type-A flu symptoms. Most of them died as a result of delayed treatment.

The most important lesson the Public Health Ministry learned was the problem of misdiagnosis of the type-A (H1N1) flu, which led to some deaths from incorrect treatment.

Kamnuan said the ministry found that many people had died from dengue fever or leptospirosis after doctors misdiagnosed them as having influenza.