I have been aware of the disease for some time but have been waiting for sufficient 'evidence based medicine' to link the various symptoms that are caused by this terrible plague. As the disease is in the early stages of recognition by the medical establishment, here in Ireland and will undoubtedly prove controversial it might be easiest to explain its effects and how it is contracted with an example of the most recent case I encountered this weekend whilst working at the out of ours service in Ballymun.
Sean is a Sargent in the army, he presents to me at the out of hours with his 3year old son Stevie. Sean is concerned that Stevie has a chest infection and might not be fit for an urgent operation which he has been scheduled to have next week.
Sean and his wife Jane both work, Jane is a bit anxious about her working and leaving the kids with a childminder. As a consequence of her anxiety she and her husband purchased private health insurance for their family this year. This is the point where I believe the family may have contracted the disease.
Because 3 yr old Stevie sometimes does not immediately respond when spoken to mum was anxious about his hearing and as a consequence of Stevie was seen by a private ENT consultant 1 day ago in Dublin (for the small non-refundable fee of some 200 euro). Stevie was diagnosed with “fluid” behind the ear drums and his surgery (insertion of grommets) was booked for next week.
Strangely when I examined Stevie's ears at the out of hours I found them both to be full of dry hard compacted wax, and as such I could see neither eardrums nor fluid. Stevie was otherwise well. It appears that as a consequence of his VHI-tis a large amount of compacted ear wax materialized in both of Stevie's ear canals within the past 24hrs. It would normally take weeks if not months for dry compacted wax to build up to this degree. From this readers might begin to imagine just how dangerous VHI-tis can be in the rapid manifestation of pathological conditions and the need for extensive testing and expensive surgical procedures.
I have not come forward to warn the public of this disease because I am as yet not certain how the disease has become so virulent. I have no doubt many in my profession will deny its existence altogether. And yet the above example is just one of many where private health insurance has resulted in the eruption and exacerbation of many pathologies and results in a need for a level of testing and surgery which medical card patients and those without health insurance seem to be immune to.
I first encountered the disease as a medical student at during my Obstetrics training in Dublin when I noticed that those women with private medical insurance were far more likely to have caesarian sections than public patients. The difference between the two patients being that those with Insurance were required to have their private consultant called from his bed or his clinic to await the natural progress of labour; whilst public patients would be attended by a midwife who is 'on her shift' and as the saying goes.. 'has all the time in the world.'
I would like to advise your readers that if they do not wish to contract the disease and suffer from its many iatrogenic consequences they should get rid of their private Health Insurance as soon as possible and with the large amount of money they save, they should buy their family doctor a nice expensive Christmas present and insist upon a proper level of care from the most tax-expensive and most dysfunctional public health system on the planet.
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