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Health Board to conduct Swine Flu phone survey
10/4/2010
Throughout this month Portugal?s National Health Board (DGS) will be carrying out a nation-wide phone survey of around 5,000 homes in order to obtain a more detailed and ?real? estimate of how many people were affected by the A H1N1 ?Swine? flu.
DGS emergency services coordinator M?rio Carreira said ?We only know about the tip of the iceberg, because we could only measure using figures relating to those who used public health services?.
Therefore, a phone enquiry will be carried out to asses what portion of the population was affected besides those who went to their local health centres or hospitals.
?There were people who either didn?t use health centres or used private services. It is this estimate we want to achieve?, Mr. Carreira explained.
The 5,000 enquiries will be carried out as a ?representative sample? of the population on mainland Portugal and will be done over a 15-day period, starting April 12th, to both landline and mobile phone numbers. After this, a study will be put together and the findings made public sometime before mid-May.
10/4/2010
Throughout this month Portugal?s National Health Board (DGS) will be carrying out a nation-wide phone survey of around 5,000 homes in order to obtain a more detailed and ?real? estimate of how many people were affected by the A H1N1 ?Swine? flu.
DGS emergency services coordinator M?rio Carreira said ?We only know about the tip of the iceberg, because we could only measure using figures relating to those who used public health services?.
Therefore, a phone enquiry will be carried out to asses what portion of the population was affected besides those who went to their local health centres or hospitals.
?There were people who either didn?t use health centres or used private services. It is this estimate we want to achieve?, Mr. Carreira explained.
The 5,000 enquiries will be carried out as a ?representative sample? of the population on mainland Portugal and will be done over a 15-day period, starting April 12th, to both landline and mobile phone numbers. After this, a study will be put together and the findings made public sometime before mid-May.
