Swine Flu Spreads In Britain

A swine flu pandemic is now well and truly underway in the UK. It was predicted 2 weeks ago that we would be facing 100,000 new cases a week by the end of august. However numbers are already exceeding that amount.

The World Health Organization has predicted there could be 2 billion cases globally during the pandemic. 26 people in the UK have died so far, as last week the number of new cases doubled to over 100,000. A worst case scenario has estimated total deaths of up to 65,000 in the UK. The government have finally launched their emergency service to deal with those suffering. You can either call the helpline on 0800 1 513 513 or visit https://www.pandemicflu.direct.gov.uk/ for more information and access to Antibiotics.

Fergus Walsh from The BBC:

“The red line – the current rate of flu – is heading up fast. This is highly unusual in the summer months. The rate of GP consultations last week stood at 155.3 per 100,000 of the population, double the previous week’s. It is still below the epidemic threshold of 200 per 100,000. But that masks several hot-spots in the UK.”

“Usually it takes six to 12 months to get an accurate estimate of the number of excess deaths caused by flu. But a rapid confidential investigation has been done by the chief medical officer into the deaths so far in England. As a result, the provisional number of deaths from swine flu in England since the outbreak began remains at 26.”

“That’s a very small number if one wants to start working out percentages with any accuracy, but the next slide shows that 33% of deaths have been in the 0-15 age group and 39% in the 16-44 age group. The over-65 group – normally worst hit by seasonal flu – accounts for 17% of deaths.”