Freaked by the Flu...Never!

AM I a bad mother because I don't have a stockpile of Tamiflu in the medicine cupboard?I wish I'd never heard of the drug. But I did hear about it.
Months ago, when urgent emails were flying between frightened parents, urging their friends and family to stock up on this wonder drug against bird flu, I got three such emails in three days.
That was long before stocks dried up. I could have got enough for the whole family but I did nothing about it.
Now I've got the guilts.
My heart sinks with each report of another dead bird, even the latest ones in Turkey.
I blame a combination of not wanting to give in to a mega-panic and not wanting to waste money.
And, yes, a feeling that I would be unfairly pushing ahead of the line.
If there was only so much to go around, why should my family get special treatment?
Just because I was Tamiflu-wise and the rest of Australia wasn't yet in the know.
It's the doctors and nurses and the other people who will be on the front line who will need it more than me and mine.
But now I don't have to worry about whether I should or shouldn't give in to the urge to put my family first.
While you might still find a doctor happy enough to write you a prescription, there's no more Tamiflu to be found on chemist shelves anywhere in Qld.
Clearly, as word spread on talkback radio, not everyone grappled with their conscience like I did.
Roche, the makers of Tamiflu, said global sales have increased four-fold as private individuals and health authorities across the world amass their stockpiles.
While a 10-capsule packet sold at the chemist for $50 when it was there, people are now buying it over the internet for up to $168 a pop.
And, of course, there's also Relenza, the other drug that is thought to be a weapon against bird flu.
But, again, even if you want it, there's none left on the chemist's shelves anyway.
The only way to allay my guilt is to remember that there's still no proof that Tamiflu would work in a bird flu pandemic anyway.
It's an antiviral drug that hasn't yet been proved effective against bird flu.
And, even if it works, there is still no bird flu to treat. The bird flu that we're hearing about is caught from birds.
While 60 people around the world have died from the disease, they have all been in contact with chickens or other birds.
Almost living on top of them in fact.
The danger is that the virus will mutate into a form that can be easily transferred from human to human.
But it hasn't happened yet.
And it might not.
We're all still talking in the hypothetical.
So what exactly should we all be doing to prepare for this possible pandemic?
I think I'll settle for trying not to panic. But how hard is that getting?
We now read daily reports of Queensland hospitals stocking up on ventilators and the US Government looking into how the army will enforce any quarantine needed.
This month an 80-nation conference on the disease warned a worldwide pandemic of bird flu among humans would be "catastrophic locally, regionally and globally".
A World Health Organisation official even warned that 150 million people could be killed, before other WHO officials admitted he'd got rather too excited.
I'll say.
No wonder some people say they're stocking up on non-perishables "just in case" they have to bunker down at home.
One mum told me her husband even suggested taking the kids deep into the outback and hanging out in some cheap pub until it's all over.
"It'll never spread to there," he reckons.
Maybe it's me trying to exorcise the guilts, but I prefer the wait-and-see approach.
I'm quietly betting bird flu will turn out to be like the other big health scare, SARS.
That was also touted as the end of the world as we know it, but it never did spread to Australia and we never did have to use any of those emergency plans.
No, let's keep calm and trust to our health officials, who seem to be up to the challenge.
Although I might just put a few dozen tins of spaghetti out in the shed.
Then at least I can tell the kid I did something.

till next time, Michelle.