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After contracting flesh-eating disease, patients question Nova Scotia
Health's response
(HTM) Source
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Two women in southwestern Nova Scotia are questioning the response by
Public Health after they say invasive group A strep infections left
them in hospital fighting flesh-eating disease.
The episode raises questions about public health messaging in the age
of social media, according to one expert.
Kelly Doucet, who lives in Hebron, N.S., said she thought she had the
flu when her ordeal began last month. But she said her mother
encouraged her to go to Yarmouth Regional Hospital after hearing about
a couple in the area who died as a result of invasive group A strep.
"I knew that it was in the province," she said. "I wasn't really aware
of the symptoms, signs or severity of what it was."
Doucet said she needed surgery to treat flesh-eating disease as a
result of the Strep A infection. And while the Yarmouth hospital team
was excellent, she said, Public Health's response has been a
disappointment.
"I got more information off of the internet than when [Public Health
was] calling me in my hospital bed," she said.
Her grandson, who had stayed with Doucet in the days prior to her
illness, was treated with a preventive antibiotic by Public Health,
she said. But her daughter, who is the boy's mother and did not stay
with Doucet, received no antibiotics and wound up in hospital with
what she believes was a complication from a strep infection.
"When I was laying in my bed [after] being cut open, my daughter was
going to the outpatients," Doucet said. "That was the worst 24 hours
of my life."
## Second case of flesh-eating disease
Crystal Dillon, who lives in Brooklyn, N.S., said her household wasn't
contacted after she was hospitalized and diagnosed with flesh-eating
disease as a result of an invasive group A strep infection.
She said there was a long wait when she visited the Yarmouth Regional
Hospital on April 8 because the emergency departments in Shelburne and
Digby were closed at that time.
An online post about flesh-eating disease at the Yarmuth hospital was
shared by thousands in April, but public health says it was
inaccurate. (Robert Short/CBC)
"After seven hours, I left. I couldn't sit anymore," said Dillon, who
returned to the hospital two days later, at which point she received
surgery.
There should have also been more information communicated about
invasive strep infections in the community, she said.
"People should have at least been given information so that it wasn't
scary for them to hear that I had this."
## Viral social media post
An anonymous Facebook message, purportedly written by a nurse, was
posted more than a week after Doucet and Dillon arrived in hospital.
It claimed there were five active cases of flesh-eating disease at the
hospital. And it was shared by thousands of users.
Nova Scotia Health subsequently said _online claims about flesh-eating
disease_ in the Yarmouth area were inaccurate, and a spokesperson for
the department said the claims had caused "unnecessary public
concern."
But Doucet and Dillon said the post provided valuable information
about the level of infection in the community.
Frustration with the health-care system is likely part of the reason
why the post spread widely, according to Robert Huish, an associate
professor of international development studies at Dalhousie
University.
"That rumour mill becomes a vent for frustration on the way a public
policy is acting right now," he said.
Public health messages about COVID-19 were well received by most in
Nova Scotia during the pandemic, he said, but health officials can
always do better by ensuring messages are inclusive and
understandable.
"The architecture of Public Health now is to try to figure out ways to
get ahead of the rumours and the scuttlebutt through social media,"
said Huish.
## Infections were communicated appropriately
Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief medical officer of health,
said Nova Scotians should look at the source of information shared on
social media.
He said there is a lack of trust in science and public health,
particularly since the pandemic.
"We have to work with the general public to help them understand that
there's a lot of misinformation," he said, "and some of it is
deliberate disinformation on social media."
Strang said the "slightly increased" rates of invasive group A strep
have been communicated appropriately.
As of May 2, Nova Scotia Health had reported 61 cases of invasive
group A strep, and about half of those were classified as severe
infections. There have been 12 deaths across the province.
## **Invasive group A strep**
Invasive group A strep infections happen when usually harmless strep
bacteria invades parts of the body that it's not normally found in.
This can lead to complications like flesh-eating disease, meningitis
and even death.
"There's nothing to suggest that there's any increased concern around
invasive group A strep in the Yarmouth area than there is anywhere in
the rest of Nova Scotia," Strang said.
He also said that while he could not comment on individual cases,
there are clear protocols that dictate when Public Health can provide
antibiotics to prevent infection.
Nova Scotia Health Minister Michelle Thompson said the department is
constantly trying to provide accurate information in a timely fashion.
"Sometimes that information is well out in front of any of the
communications teams or the media for example," said Thompson. "Not
everything we read on social media is true, but it is immediate."
Huish said that dispelling misinformation or disinformation and
rebuilding trust is vital before another public-health emergency hits.
"So if there is a need to try to co-ordinate trust and buy-in for
another emergency down the road, it's little moments like that that
will be a real hindrance going forward," he said.
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