Dutch government battles A/H1N1 with leaflet

As of yesterday the Dutch government, together with the RIVM (the Dutch equivalent of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC) have decided they will no longer test all people with flue symptoms for the A/H1N1 virus, or give them anti-viral medication, such as Tamiflu. According to a spokesman for the RIVM they have decided to adopt this new policy because the number of infections in Holland has become so large, the labs that test for the virus can't handle the work. Excepted from the new policy are pregnant women, people who have a lowered immune system and people with a serious illness.

Apart from this, our Dutch Government is also coming up with a leaflet/pamphlet that is supposed to inform and prepare you for the flu. The leaflet will be send out to 8.7 million households in Holland and there also will be a TV-campaign and several newspaper ads.

If you ask me they are rather late with this: the UK government already circulated such a leaflet weeks ago.

Also, the whole timing of this new policy seems rather peculiar to me, as the summer vacation in Holland is about to end for most people and one would expect that this outbreak will actually grow exponentially in the coming months. Every health agency thinks the flu will hit hardest during the coming winter months as people's resistance get lower due to the cold weather. It is not by accident we call wintertime "flu season".

The bad part about the new policy is, that if you have a flu now, you won't know for sure if it is A/H1N1. So there is no way of telling you get it later - or not.