By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Nausea, body aches and diarrhea were just some of the symptoms that Han, a 28-year-old office worker, experienced after returning home from a weeklong trip to Mexico and the United States last week. Fearing the H1N1 flu virus, she sought an influenza test at two neighborhood hospitals, but was turned away by both.
Their reason? Not enough test kits.
``They told me to come back in three days,'' said Han, who ended up going to a bigger hospital downtown, ``but I was feeling too ill to wait that long.''
She was relieved to test negative on the initial screening, but was told that she would have to wait a whole week to get the results of a more thorough check-up.
``A sick person neither has the patience nor is in the condition to be kept waiting,'' said Han, who resented hospital officials' lax response to patients' needs.
However, medical officials claim that they're left with no choice but to bounce people away, as the flood of suspected influenza A cases is putting a strain on testing kits.
``It's better to refuse patients if we're not capable of giving them proper medical attention immediately,'' said a staff member at Asan Hospital in Yongsan, central Seoul, which has frequently run short on H1N1 rapid test kits since July.
Like mid-sized hospitals, plenty of clinics nationwide are struggling to cope with the sudden spike in the volume of suspected cases.
According to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, more than 2,000 people are seeking influenza A tests per day, outstripping the supply of reagents and laboratory staff needed to execute the testing. An average of 500 tests is carried out daily, officials say.
``We are dealing with volume that is three to four times more than what we can handle,'' said one official of the health ministry's H1N1 monitoring team, who added the demand is unmatchable even if all testing equipments are operated 24 hours a day.
The number of confirmed infections in South Korea has soared in recent days, increasing to 2,417 on Thursday, up 97 from one day earlier. The highly-contagious virus, also known as swine flu, has taken two lives here.
The rapid spread of the flu has fanned public paranoia, prompting people to flock to hospitals and pharmacies even for mild symptoms. Such frenzy is pushing health authorities to respond accordingly.
The health ministry said Thursday that it will soon ration antiviral agents such as Tamiflu to ensure that ample supply remains for severely ill patients.
Once the ministry finalizes a system to track the number of medicine purchases people make, it will allow individuals to buy H1N1 antiviral agents only once.
``We can't afford to let paranoid people cause a run on the country's supply of antivirals,'' said Jun Byoung-yool, a senior official at the state-run disease control center.
The South Korean government currently has 1.99 million treatments of Tamiflu and 480,000 doses of Relenza, but plans to double the supply by November.