Canada NO LONGER TESTING TO CONFIRM IF ANYONE'S FLU IS ACTUALLY H1N1.

Likely flu sufferer can’t get test results

Woman fears she may pass H1N1 to husband with heart condition

[link to www.ottawacitizen.com]

OTTAWA — Coughing badly and sick from the H1N1 swine flu that likely has invaded her body, Susan Poulin is stuck in her house afraid and confused — and feeling let down by public-health authorities.

After falling sick with flu-like symptoms last week, the Ottawa woman went to see a doctor Monday, who, after an examination, suspected Poulin had the H1N1 flu and promptly put her on the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Samples from her were sent for testing. Worried that she might have passed the virus to her husband Gord Borland, who has congenital heart disease and awaits a transplant, she sent him to the same doctor the next day and he was prescribed Tamiflu, too. Swabs were taken for testing as well. Three days later, Poulin, an economist who works for Service Canada, went to the clinic for her results only to be told that the samples hadn’t been tested because the province no longer tests for H1N1.
She was horrified and flabbergasted, and everywhere she turned, Poulin could get no satisfactory answers.

“I feel like I have been left to dry. I am getting worse, but I don’t know if I have this thing or not, and I feel that I have a right to know,” Poulin said through violent bouts of coughing.

“It seems to me that the government made a decision that because they are getting hundreds of requests, and it is costing money, they are going to save money by not testing. At a time the World Health Organization is talking pandemic, saving money should not be the priority.”

Poulin and Borland are bearing the brunt of a decision by Ontario public health authorities to stop mass H1N1 testing because it is no longer needed. Public-health officials say the tests were done in the initial stages of the outbreak to determine the behaviour of the virus in order to contain it. Once containment became futile as the virus spread through the community, it was pointless to continue testing.

“There really is no specific reason to do widespread testing anymore,” Ottawa medical officer of health Dr. Isra Levy said last week. “Unlike the early days, when we were trying to get a handle on the epidemiology and understand whether and when there would be spread in the community, we now know with certainty that this virus is here.”

That means the number of confirmed cases in the city will be difficult to determine even as the virus continues to spread and many people will be caught in the middle — getting treatment, but not knowing for certain if they’ve been infected.
Poulin says it is “irresponsible” to just dismiss the impact on people like her and leave them with the psychological problem of wondering if they have a deadly flu or not.

“I have asthma, I am coughing my brains out and spitting and I find it pretty irresponsible for them to be doing this. I am worried about my husband because if he gets this, he is going to die,” the 25-year public servant said.

Ottawa public health officials would not comment Tuesday. But Professor Earl Brown, a University of Ottawa virologist, said that while he sympathizes with Poulin, public health authorities are in a “tricky” situation, but have essentially made the right call in stopping tests.
He said testing is critical when little is known about a virus, but there is no longer much of a mystery about H1N1 and “testing doesn’t add anything to the mix right now.”
Brown doesn’t rule out penny-pinching as one of the reasons for the government’s decision, because budgets are being blown in hospitals and laboratories across the country to deal with the flu. But the bottom line is that people with suspected cases are being properly treated, he said, tests or no.

He said the Canadian approach right now is to reduce testing and treat suspected cases with Tamiflu, which is effective when administered within two days of symptoms.

“She is being treated with the best thing they’ve got to treat her and I think she should be assured there,” Brown said. He said, however, that it would be helpful to have some counselling for people like Poulin and Borland to explain what is happening and put their minds at ease.

“I would think that there would be some discussion and a bit of counselling,” Brown said.

So far, the H1N1 flu has killed seven people in Ontario and 2,556 confirmed cases have been formally recorded in the province. The number in Ottawa remains at 261.