# 4431
Dr. Gordian Fulde is the head of the Emergency Department at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia and writes a column for the Daily Telegraph.
This morning, his column mentions an influx of patients into local Emergency Rooms with a nasty respiratory virus, some of whom are developing pneumonia. This appears to be an `off season’ virus, as the flu season `down under’ is still several months away.
The identity of this virus isn’t stated, other than the belief that it isn’t the novel H1N1 swine flu. As we’ve discussed in the past (see ILI’s Aren’t Always The Flu) there are a lot of different viruses out there capable of causing `flu-like’ symptoms.
First the report, then a few comments.
Nasty virus taking Sydney people down
- Dr Gordian Fulde
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- March 15, 2010 12:00AM
SYDNEYSIDERS are being hit by a virus that is not only taking down people but also hospital staff.
It is an unseasonal virus, not the swine flu, that is really nasty and the emergency department has been flooded by people coming in sick with it.
It has caused some people, even young ones, to get pneumonia.
This is not the right time of the year but it is amazing how it is spreading. It seems to be attacking the head so people feel like they are getting the flu.
They will have a nasty cough and we are seeing a lot of sore throats and infections that are so severe we have to admit people.
Some patients have had throats so swollen they can't swallow or breath properly and even their neck is swollen.
Last fall we saw similar reports coming out of Emergency Rooms here in the United States, and it was eventually determined that a particularly nasty Rhinovirus was to blame.
I blogged about it several times, including When The `Flu’ Isn’t The Flu, and Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor of Reuters wrote about it here:
Not just swine flu - new cold virus may lurk, too
Tue Nov 17, 2009 3:24pm EST
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Runny nose, fever, cough, even pneumonia -- the symptoms sound like swine flu but children hospitalized at one U.S. hospital in fact had a rhinovirus, better known as a common cold virus, doctors said on Tuesday.
Hundreds of children treated at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia had a rhinovirus, and federal health investigators are trying to find out if it was a new strain, and if this is going on elsewhere in the country.
“What began to happen in early September is we started seeing more children coming to our emergency room with significant respiratory illness," said Dr. Susan Coffin, medical director of infection control and prevention at the hospital.
None of which is to suggest that what the residents of Sydney are seeing is the same Rhinovirus (although it might be). There are, quite frankly, a lot of plausible candidates.
Including some we’ve probably not identified.
The take home message here is, whatever the cause, good respiratory etiquette remains important, even if the pandemic virus is waning in your community.
Covering your coughs, washing your hands, and staying home when you are sick are good ideas all of the time.
Not just during a pandemic. And not just during flu season, either.
