Concern over typhoid outbreak

Concern over the effects of the public health doctors' dispute heightened yesterday after a typhoid outbreak was recorded in the north Dublin area.The doctors, now in their fifth week of a strike over pay and conditions, were last night offering advice to the Northern Area Health Board on how to deal with the disease threat.

Typhoid is a potentially serious fever, usually accompanied by constipation or diarrhoea, but can be treated with antibiotics. Ireland sees between one and four cases most years, mostly acquired overseas.

A spokesperson for the Eastern Regional Health Authority said the patient has been hospitalised since May 5th and all known contacts of the individual are well.

Dr Joe Barry, president of the Irish Medical Organisation, described the outbreak as worrying but said it was impossible to estimate how many people had been exposed to the illness so far.

He said an outbreak of tuberculosis in the west and measles in Bray, Co Wicklow, underlined how urgent it was for the dispute to be resolved.

Two further cases of TB were identified at a Western Health Board-run centre for the intellectually disabled yesterday.

The cases, which the health board described as "non-infectious", were identified during follow-up screening of the centre's residents after one resident died from TB a month ago.

Around 200 public health doctors had a private meeting yesterday on the strike.

They plan a number of announcements in the coming days relating to the effect of the strike on surveillance and control of infectious diseases, children's vaccination programmes and the inspection of nursing homes.

The doctors are due to apply to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for permission to mount all-out pickets at health board-run hospitals when they meet on May 22nd.

If ICTU allows all-out pickets, all hospital staff, including non-medical staff, would be encouraged not to pass the public health doctors' pickets.

Dr Barry also rejected a claim by the chief executive officer of the Western Health Board, Dr Sheelah Ryan, that it could provide a full range of regional health services in the absence of public health doctors.

"It's a bit incompatible that, on the one hand, the CEO is saying the health board can do without us, yet on the other we are being asked for help," Dr Barry said.

The health board contacted striking public health doctors about the new cases through their emergency helpline yesterday and advice was offered over the telephone on how to manage the TB outbreak.

All those who have been in contact with the infected patients will have to be traced.

The Northern Area Health Board also contacted striking doctors yesterday for advice on how to manage a case of typhoid in a patient who had recently been abroad.