The following is the ninth in a series of ten articles that originally appeared in the Indiana Medical Society’s monthly magazine “The Bulletin.” As President of the Indiana Medical Society over the past year, Dr. McGoff wrote on a wide variety of topics, most importantly the current condition of health care in the United States. These articles will help illustrate Dr. McGoff’s views and beliefs. This article appeared in the July 2009 issue.

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The past few months have been hectic to say the least for health care providers. Emergency departments and private physician office practices have seen record volumes. The Swine Flu, or H1N1 as the Administration would like us to call it, has taken Indiana by storm. While the number of cases have been few and fatalities still fewer, the public was concerned and wanted answers. Most were walking wounded, who needed nothing more than reassurance.

Here are some recent quotes from local emergency departments. “I ate at a Mexican restaurant last night and I have a sore throat. Do I have the Swine Flu?” or how about this award winner, “With all this pig flu going around town, I’m going to quit eating pork…I think I’ll just go home and have a hot dog!” You can’t make these things up. How do you think the Health Department is doing at getting their message out?

It’s not from lack of trying. Over the last month, the fine professionals at the Indiana State Department of Health and the Marion County Health Department have been putting in long hours investigating the pandemic and trying to keep physicians and the public aware of the potential crisis. As it turns out H1N1 met all the criteria of a pandemic, it just happened not to be a virulent virus. The CDC is considering adding that as part of the criteria for declaring a health emergency.

With the pace of news dissemination, it didn’t take long for the fear to spread and the panic was worldwide. People are either blaming everything made from pork or anyone who has traveled to Mexico. In Egypt, the federal government slaughtered over 300,000 pigs, because of misplaced fears, (pork is only consumed by the minority Christian population). Please reassure your patients, it is not possible to get the Swine Flu from eating a cooked pork chop.

Studies have shown that the devastating influenza pandemic of 1918, which killed up to 50 million people, was caused by H1N1. Trying to trace the origins of this epidemic have been difficult. A novel strain of H1N1 was discovered in a Wisconsin teen in the fall of 2005, but not investigated. By mid-March of this year, a large spike of influenza cases were noted in Mexico and a few cases were noted in Southern California. It is believed that triple reassorted viruses created from exposure to viruses in birds, pigs and humans, resulting in a new strain may be the culprit. This new virus appears to be very contagious, but fortunately treatable with some of our current antivirals. Stockpiling was occurring throughout the city and some pharmacies were sold out a few weeks into the hysteria.

Your Indianapolis Medical Society has been involved since this crisis first began. We have been invited to early meetings with the Marion County Health Department (MCHD) as well as having a seat at the Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Support Function 8 (ESF 8 ) Group. Our membership of more than 2,100 physicians are ready to support the public health arm in any way asked. One of my goals this year for the Society was to become as digital as possible. It is imperative that we have access to information in a timely fashion, so that we can deliver the best possible care to our patients and therefore protect them and ourselves.

Dr. Virginia Caine, Medical Director of the MCHD, put it best when she said, “While this wasn’t the catastrophic event it could have been, it was a good test of the system, better than any planned drill or tabletop exercise.” It is important that we take these lessons learned and build on this experience and help better prepare for what will surely be an eventuality.