Health Protection Agency helps GPs recognise unusual symptoms of rare diseases

Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Article Date: 14 May 2004 - 0:00 PDT


The Health Protection Agency, UK, has this week issued a set of clinical action cards to all GPs in England to help them recognise unusual symptoms that could potentially be linked to emerging diseases or other chemical, biological or radiological threats.

The New diseases, new threats resource illustrates the signs and symptoms that might arise from a range of diseases and threats, such as Sars or avian flu, which GPs may never have previously encountered. Should GPs discover any of the symptoms illustrated, the resource urges them to contact their local health protection team for advice and support.

The resource has been developed by the HPA's emergency response division as part of a wider professional training programme. The programme has been given £2.6m in funding by the Department of Health, and includes resource production and scenario training.

Division director Dr Nigel Lightfoot said the cards, particularly, had been developed in response to requests by the medical profession for more specific training in the area of emerging diseases and threats.

'It is obvious that if, for example, there is a deliberate release, patients will present to GPs, A&E and walk-in centres first, so these clinicians need to be aware of the threats,' Dr Lightfoot said. 'We looked at how we could get a consistent message across to GPs throughout the country and we spoke to them and they all asked for simple messages which they could refer to quickly and easily. They suggested that this would be much better than a textbook or a CD-Rom.

'Our simple message is "be aware and, if you do have concerns about something suspicious, call the local health protection team". We are not asking doctors to do anything differently because we have always asked them to contact the HPA if they spot anything suspicious. But what we hope to do is raise their levels of awareness of these threats because what we have realised, particularly during the Sars issue, is that the sooner we know about a threat, the better chance we have of containing it.'

British Medical Association representative Dr Peter Holden said the resource would be a great asset to GPs. 'This is a very practical guide as it covers many things which GPs are unlikely to have seen, even if they have previously studied infectious diseases,' Dr Holden said. 'It is long overdue and the format is excellent - if it was a CD-Rom it would have been used as a coaster. I hope it becomes one in a series, because these are things that GPs need to know.'

A total of 37,500 cards have been sent to GPs across England, and a poster containing the same information is being developed for A&E staff. The devolved administrations have access to the cards but are currently developing ways to adapt the resource to better suit their health service structures. There has also been international interest in the cards.

by Shannon McKenzie

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