further swine flu cases confirmed in scotland and england

Posted on May 9th 2009

Nine new cases of swine flu have been confirmed - eight in England and one in Scotland - bringing the UK total to 48. The English cases involve two adults and six children. One adult is from the East Midlands and the other cases are all in London. One of the adult cases is associated with travel to Mexico, while the children attended the same school. A 19-year-old man from Greenock is being treated in hospital in Glasgow after testing positive for the virus.

 

 

 

Canada has confirmed its first swine flu virus death

Posted on May 8th 2009

A woman, from northern Alberta province, tested positive for the H1N1 strain but also had serious underlying medical conditions. She was in her 30s and had not travelled recently. Andre Corriveau, Alberta's chief medical officer, said: "We have our first fatality in Alberta that is associated with the H1N1 flu. This is the first one in Canada that we can document that is related to H1N1," he said, adding "but there were also a number of underlying medical conditions."

 

Five new UK flu cases confirmed

Posted on May 7th 2009

Four children and one adult, all linked to the same school, have been diagnosed with swine flu, taking the total number of cases in the UK to 39. The affected school - Alleyn's in Dulwich, south-east London - has already seen six pupils diagnosed with the H1N1 virus earlier this week. All 1,200 pupils as well as staff have already been given Tamiflu antiviral drugs and the school has been closed. More than 400 people in the UK are currently being tested for the virus.

 

Nine More Swine Flu Cases In Britain

Posted on May 5th 2009

Seven children are among nine new confirmed cases of swine flu in the UK, taking the total to 27, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said. Eight of the latest cases are in London and one in the West Midlands. The Department of Health said seven people appear to have caught the H1N1 strain of the virus from person-to-person contact. And two infections were in people who had recently returned from Mexico, the source of the outbreak. Five of the children are in the same year at Alleyn's School, in Dulwich, south east London.

 

Swine Flu; 18 confirmed UK cases

Posted on May 4th 2009

Two schoolchildren from London have been confirmed as the latest people to become infected with swine flu. A 14-year-old girl from Barnet caught the virus from a person who visited Mexico. And an 11-year-old girl in Wandsworth tested positive after she travelled to the United States. The infections follow a man from Ayrshire becoming the fourth person in Scotland to be diagnosed with the virus. This person had travelled to an affected area of the United States. The man is believed to have taken a connecting flight to Glasgow from Birmingham, on his return from Texas on April 30. The number of confirmed cases across the British Isles is now 18.
 

Swine Flu Now Confirmed Across British Isles

Posted on May 3rd 2009

Swine flu has now been confirmed across the British Isles as the UK infection tally rose to 15 and Ireland revealed its first case. A six-year-old girl and the husband of a woman already diagnosed with the bug were confirmed as two latest UK outbreaks. Both new cases had recently returned from Mexico. Irish health officials also revealed an individual who had recently been there had the human form of swine flu. More than 630 other people in the UK and three in Ireland are undergoing tests for the disease. There are now 12 confirmed cases of the virus in England and three in Scotland.

 

Hundreds Tested For Swine Flu As Cases Rise

Posted on May 2nd 2009

Health chiefs are waiting for the results of hundreds of tests for swine flu as the tally of confirmed cases in the UK rose to 13. More than 600 people are being tested for the disease after it was confirmed that it has now been transmitted between humans in the UK. On Friday, the Department of Health announced four new cases in the South West, South East, North East and Scotland, including the first two people to fall ill without having recently travelled to Mexico. Graeme Pacitti, 24, from Polmont, near Falkirk, became the first person in the UK to test positive for the virus without going abroad. He contracted the disease after coming into contact with Iain Askham, who fell ill after his honeymoon in the Latin American country.

 

Swine flu latest; human-to-human transfer

Posted on May 1st 2009

The first UK case of human-to-human transmission of swine flu has been confirmed by the Scottish health minister. All other UK cases had contracted the virus in Mexico. With the Health Protection Agency confirming a case of swine flu in Merseyside the UK total now stands at 10 infections. The man is reported to be quite well and recovering at home. The news comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) said there was not enough evidence to raise the level of the swine flu alert from phase five to phase six; the highest level. We therefore remain at Phase Five, which means that there is human-to-human spread of the virus in at least two countries in the same region. phase five is a strong signal that "a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalise the organisation, communication, and implementation of planned mitigation measures is short", the WHO says.

 

Scottish official confirms Britain's firsts cases of swine flu

Posted on April 27th 2009

Scotland's health secretary says authorities have confirmed Britain's first cases of swine flu. Nicola Sturgeon says tests have "conclusively" confirmed two cases of swine flu in Scotland. Sturgeon did not say where the tests were carried out or whether the tests showed the same strain of flu that has affected Mexico. The two infected people were kept in hospital after showing flu-like symptoms following a trip to Mexico. Sturgeon said today that both individuals were "recovering well in hospital" and that the threat to the British public remains "very low."

 

 

 

At least 100 dead from Swine flu worldwide

Posted on April 26th 2009
Hundreds of air travellers will be offered Tamiflu as reports of suspected swine flu cases spread across the country. As the global death toll rose above 100, New Zealand health officials were investigating suspected cases in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Nelson, the West Coast, Canterbury and Otago. Some patients were isolated at home and were being treated with the anti-viral drug as a precaution. In Wellington, a district court trial was aborted because the judge, who had flown back from the United States at the weekend, was concerned about her flu symptoms. Pharmacies were inundated with inquiries from worried customers wanting Tamiflu and face masks.

 

1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics

Posted on April 24th, 2009

The "Spanish" influenza pandemic of 1918–1919, which caused 50 million deaths worldwide, remains an ominous warning to public health. Many questions about its origins, its unusual epidemiologic features, and the basis of its pathogenicity remain unanswered. The public health implications of the pandemic therefore remain in doubt even as we now grapple with the feared emergence of a pandemic caused by H5N1 or other virus. However, new information about the 1918 virus is emerging, for example, sequencing of the entire genome from archival autopsy tissues. But, the viral genome alone is unlikely to provide answers to some critical questions. Understanding the 1918 pandemic and its implications for future pandemics requires careful experimentation and in-depth historical analysis.

 

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