Reporting a public health story

1
Reporting a public health story

• Thomas Abraham
• JMSC 0054

2
A case study of the recent flu outbreak.
3
Cold Weather throws hospital wards in crisis

• What is causing the crisis?
• Facts to verify-
• -how cold was the weather?
• (http//www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm)
• -who are the patients?
• -why are these people falling ill ?

4

• What do the figures for flu show?
• ( www.chp.gov.hk)
• Conclusion A large number of old people were
  being admitted to hospitals because of illnesses
  related to the cold weather

5
Second story

• March 5 Three year old child dies of after
  being seen at Tuen Mun hospital emergency ward
  and then sent home. This sparks public anger and
  worry

6
Report from Oriental Daily

• Parents and villagers are in fear
• Ho Po Yee, who died of H3 influenza, and her
  sister being hospitalised in Tun Mun Hospital,
  the whole Tun Mun area has been in fear. In the
  school which Po Yee went, parents of students
  were very anxious and requested full knowledge on
  the situation. The school also had thorough
  cleansing of the campus. Although the sample
  taken from the respiratory system of the deceased
  girl was confirmed to contain H3 influenza
  strain, the cause of death remains to be
  determined by further examination. Village
  representative of Chung Uk Village, in which the
  Ho family lives, worriedly said, "All the
  villagers would have been dead by the time the
  report is released!"

7

• By March 7, the overcrowding in hospitals, and
  the death of the 3 year old child and had merged
  into a single story about a flu outbreak.
• Peak season for flu hospitals at 110 percent
  capacity Apple Daily
• Newspapers make link between flu and SARS

8

• Health authorities announce public education
  campaign, shortened visiting hours in hospitals
  because of general community concerns
• Public criticism about government preparedness
  increases, parents get worried-

9

• 7 March- 2 year old boy dies shortly after
  arriving in hospital
• 8 March- Accident and Emergency departments are
  full as panicked parents take their children to
  hospital
• 11 March- 7 year old boy dies at Tuen Mun
  hospital of a respiratory infection
• 13 March- all primary schools ordered to close

10
Look at influenza figures for March 13

• The facts the flu season is not worse than
  normal.
• Hospitals are overcrowded not because of flu, but
  because of cold weather related illnesses among
  the elderly
• Small children can die of flu related
  complications

11

• Parents began panicking after reports of children
  dying
• There were also news reports of hospitals
  overcrowded because of flu
• A number of schools were reporting children
  falling ill with flu, though not in alarming
  numbers
• If you look at the figures, there was nothing out
  of the ordinary

12
Did news reporting contribute to this false scare?

• A reporters job is to evaluate information- tell
  people the meaning of an event, and how
  significant it is
• Reporting information without evaluating it
  leads to confusion among readers

13

• Flu spread with immense speed, more schools
  failed to defend. Centre for Health Protection
  received 13 outbreak reports from schools,
  including several famous ones with 86 being
  infected. Hospital Authority was cutting back
  non-emergency services so as to allocate more
  resources to fight against flu outbreak. Tun Mun
  Hospital had zones specially for flu patients,
  limiting their area of activity. Public hospitals
  were so crowded and some private ones opened
  their clinics for children at night. Apple Daily
  8 March

14
What should reporters have been pointing out

• Flu season not worse than normal
• Taking children to accident and emergency
  departments puts them at additional risk- it is
  better to go to your doctor
• Flu is a normal disease, and most people will
  recover without any treatment
• The importance of vaccination and other
  preventive measures

15
The health reporters job

• Finding health news-monitoring the sources of
  health news for new information that would be of
  interest to readers
• Evaluating information- is the evidence reliable,
  is the source reliable, how significant is it?
• Reporting the news- explaining the significance
  of the news, translating technical terms into lay
  language, putting developments into context

16

• During a disease outbreak, there will be many
  experts, often saying different things
• Reporting has to go beyond quoting other people-
  you need to get the facts, analyse them, and then
  report them
• The public relies on you to make sense of what is
  happening during times of confusion

17
A news report should answer questions in the
readers mind

• How bad is the outbreak or disease?
• What is causing it?
• How much at risk am I?
• How can I take care of myself?
• How is the medical system coping?