Texas Doctor Claims Swine Flu Cases Far Worse Than Reported
April 30th, 2009Update: Doctor Taken To Task For H1N1 E-mail
Via: KSAT:
A New Braunfels emergency doctor’s e-mail sent this week about the H1N1 flu outbreak has many people wondering which information is correct and has Comal County health authorities distancing themselves from the doctor’s message.
An e-mail sent by Dr. Marcus Gitterle, an employee of Christus Santa Rosa hospital, sent out an e-mail releasing information about a public health meeting he recently attended. The e-mail states that almost everybody exposed to H1N1 virus will become infected, though not necessarily sick. He also wrote that he believed the number of confirmed cases is higher than media reports indicated and that hospital would likely be overwhelmed.
The e-mail generated a massive amount of interest from the hundred who received it, including KSAT 12 News via numerous forwarded messages from readers and viewers.
Comal County officials addressed Gitterle’s comments at their Thursday morning briefing.
“Christus Santa Rosa hospital just called me to assure me that this doctor was not speaking for the hospital,” said Comal County Judge Danny Scheel. “The hospital agrees fully with the recommendations made by the CDC and by our local health authorities.”
Scheel also said Gitterle’s assertions that communities are running out of Tamiflu, one of the treatments being used for those diagnosed with the illness, are exaggerated, and that more of the drug would be available if necessary.
Gitterle backtracked from his earlier e-mail with a post on his blog Thursday. The post read: “Finally, I want to clarify that I did not, and do not feel that the media is intentionally misleading anyone; rather, I think that this is a confusing, rapidly evolving situation, and it is easy for even trained professionals to become confused about the subtle distinctions between microbiologic confirmation and clinical diagnosis. I applaud the judicious, thoughtful reporting I have been seeing. I think the media has been by and large very responsible and helpful throughout this epidemic. Likewise, the Health Department and CDC are not misleading anyone, I think that again, the same technical communication issues apply.”
Update, 8:12 p.m.: The following is a statement from Gitterle sent to KSAT 12 News: When I sent out an email to close friends and family a couple of days ago, I had no idea it would be edited, twisted and sent around the world. Unfortunately, it has. I intended only to help my close friends and family understand the seriousness of this epidemic. I was not making an official public health statement. To set the record straight, I cannot speak more highly of Comal County Judge, Danny Scheele, Comal County School officials, Dr. Overman, and the tireless staff of our County Health Department. They acted with great professionalism and temerity, in choosing to close schools for 10 days, and I believe it is already having an effect on the spread of the virus. Likewise, hospitals in the region, including my own, have been doing incredible work in managing the patient care mission created by this epidemic. Administrators in my hospital system are truly rising to the occasion, and I am proud of their work. I also think that at the national level, excellent decisions have been made to support the fight against this virus. One of those excellent decisions was to make certain that ample supplies of appropriate medication are available to manage an epidemic such as this. Finally, the media is responding with some really excellent reporting on a complex, emotion-laden subject, without fanning the counterproductive flames of fear and paranoia. If there is a message I would like to convey, it is to take this flu seriously, and stay safe. How? By supporting the decisions of our public officials, and paying close attention to CDC and Health Department announcements and guidelines. If we do that, we can win this battle.
—End Update—
I read the following post on PrisonPlanet and tried to find an email address for Dr. Marcus L Gitterle. I wanted to try to reach him to see if he would verify that he actually sent the email in question out to his list. I was not able to find an email address for him.
I managed to find a copy of the email, that he supposedly sent, reposted on the Vitals website. It was posted in one of the reviews on his profile.
If you happen to know Dr. Gitterle, please get him to contact any of us in alternative information circles so we can verify this.
Via: Prison Planet:
A doctor in Texas claims that swine flu cases are at least ten times worse than officials are letting on, and that hospitals are becoming overwhelmed as the virus has already crossed the threshold to be considered a phase 6 global pandemic.
Dr. Marcus Gitterle, an emergency medicine physician based out of New Braunfels, Texas, sent out an internal alert which contains several stunning claims about swine flu that, if true, officials have presumably sought to keep from the public.
“After I returned from a public health meeting yesterday with community leaders and school officials in Comal County and Hays County, (name removed) suggested I send an update to my patients in the area, because what we are hearing privately from the CDC and Health Department is different from what you are hearing in the media,” writes Gitterle.
The doctor claims that the actual number of confirmed cases of swine flu is 10 to 25 times worse than has been reported, and that people are not recovering easily, as has been claimed, but that many Americans are in fact seriously ill.
“The way they fudge on reporting this is that it takes 3 days to get the confirmatory nod from the CDC on a given viral culture, but based on epidemiological grounds, we know that there are more than 10 cases for each “confirmed” case right now,” claims Gitterle.
“This has not been in the media, but a 23 month old in Houston is fighting for his life, and a pregnant woman just south of San Antonio is fighting for her life,” he writes.
Gitterle’s mention of a “23 month old in Houston” obviously refers to the Mexican toddler who died on Monday night and was announced as the first U.S. fatality on Tuesday morning.
Quick access to drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza, as well as ventilators, is preventing fatalities on the scale of Mexico, but Gitterle warns that “within a couple of weeks, regional hospitals will likely become overwhelmed”.
Gitterle warns, “ER’s south of here are becoming overwhelmed — and I mean that — already. It is coming in waves, but the waves are getting bigger.”
The doctor states that the severity of the situation has already crossed the threshold of the definition of a WHO phase 6 pandemic. “This has not happened in any of our lifetimes so far. We are in uncharted territory,” he writes.
Gitterle claims that President Obama is being advised to declare a national emergency and that this could happen within the next 48 hours.
“This may not happen, but if it doesn’t, I will be surprised. When this happens, all public gathering will be cancelled for 10 days minimum,” writes the doctor.
Gitterle advises people to avoid all public gatherings, especially those held indoors, to avoid going to their ER if they feel ill, and to take the nutritional supplements N-Acetyl-Cysteine and Oscillococinum. He recommends Relenza as a more powerful drug than Tamiflu but warns that supplies of both drugs are running out fast.
The doctor states that swine flu is infectious for about two days prior to symptom onset and that the virus can spread for more than seven days after symptom onset. The symptoms are the same as normal flu, although it has been discovered that swine flu causes a distinctive “hoarseness” in many victims.
“Since it is such a novel (new) virus, there is no “herd immunity,” so the “attack rate” is very high. This is the percentage of people who come down with a virus if exposed. Almost everyone who is exposed to this virus will become infected, though not all will be symptomatic. That is much higher than seasonal flu, which averages 10-15%. The “clinical attack rate” estimation from CDC and WHO may be around 40-50%. This is the number of people who show symptoms. This is a huge number. It is hard to convey the seriousness of this to those outside of the medical fields,” he writes.
Research Credit: Dave
