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April 23, 2003

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Dispute Halts Medical Check on Diseases"

Irish Times (www.ireland.com) (04/22/03) P. 3; Holland, Kitty

As a result of an ongoing strike of more than 300 public health doctors in Ireland, over 40 notifiable diseases, including bacterial meningitis and measles, are being left unmonitored, the Irish Medical Organization (IMO) warned Monday.  IMO vice president Dr. Joe Barry noted, for example, the importance of early intervention in case of an outbreak of meningitis type B, for which there is no vaccine.  Such rapid intervention, he said, "is something that would be far slower to happen in the absence of a fully operational public health doctor system."  Dr. Barry reminded that early intervention is also important with measles, which took the lives of three Dublin children during an outbreak three years ago.  Other illnesses for which public health doctors' skills are needed, he said, include hepatitis, E. coli 0157, and sexually transmitted diseases.  The doctors are on strike because the Department of Health was only paying them on a nine-to-five basis, even though they were being called on to help round the clock.

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