Today I visited the George Eliot Hospital in the city of Nuneaton here in the UK.
Upon trying to get a parking ticket upon arrival i was greeted with a simple yet worrying message as the picture bellow shows.
you can Click for a larger version or see the closer picture bellow
My local Hospital, the place that my family would go in the even of an health emergency is in the middle of an outbreak of an RNA virus known as Norovirus, as soon as i returned home i checked the trusty internet for more information (link provided)
To be fair to the George Elliot hospital they do have a message on their home page regarding the issue.
it reads: “The Norovirus sickness and diarrhoea bug is currently prevalent in the community. Please help to minimise the risk of this spreading to our patients by refraining from visiting wards if you are feeling generally unwell, especially if you are suffering from diarrhoea or vomiting.”
I also found on the BBC news page a mention of the issue as well (only when i looked really hard that is)
now, my worry is that my local news paper did not report the issue, there was not a warning given to the person that i was taking to the hospital either. so, you really don’t know about it at all unless you are buying a parking ticket.
wikipedia (my source for all things factual, for better or worse) has this to say
“Severe illness is rare: although people are frequently treated at the emergency ward, they are rarely admitted to the hospital. The number of deaths from norovirus in the US is estimated to be around 300 each year, with most of these occurring in the very young, elderly and persons with weakened immune systems. Symptoms may become life-threatening in these groups if dehydration is ignored or not treated”
So, it kills 300 people each year in the US, correct me if i am wrong but if you take away those who had ‘underlying heath problems’ from the H1N1 deaths and i think you may find that the Norovirus is at least as worrying as swine flu, yet there's no talk of it my my local paper and there is no Tamiflu equivalent on offer (thank the maker)
here are some other quotes from the wikipedia article that i thought where worth pointing out
“Hand washing is an effective method to reduce the spread of norovirus pathogens. Sanitizing of surfaces where the norovirus may be present is recommended. Alcohol rubs are not very effective at dealing with Norovirus.” – that's comforting,
“the prevention of nosocomial infections involves routine and terminal cleaning.” – revolutionary advice, clean stuff!
A little more fringe for a moment
One of the other things that i noticed while reading about the Norovirus was that its ‘marketed’ as acute gastroenteritis that develops between 24 and 48 hours after exposure, however it is an RNA virus, and for anyone who is familiar with the writings of Micheal Talbot or even some of the newer David Icke books then you may recall that RNA is the tool that allows our DNA to decode the reality we live in, so isn’t an RNA targeting virus a worrying thing?
Tamiflu, pointless placebo or government provided killer? well, that's the topic on another post entirely but if you do some research you will find people who have already spoken in some depth about it (Alex Jones for one) my point is that the media could have latched onto this tiny little outbreak and screamed pandemic very easily, or is could have gone unnoticed or simply diagnosed by the hospital stall as a H1N1 outbreak instead.
Its interesting to see how things are handled by the media and by the NHS, but more importantly if its not safe to visit the hospital how is it safe to be in the care of the hospital?
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