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Swine flu could claim 65,000 UK lives, says health chief
THE Government announced yesterday that 29 people in the UK have now died after contracting swine flu as the virus continues to spread, although Yorkshire appears to be escaping the worst of it.
The news comes as Chief Medical Officer for England, Sir Liam Donaldson, published details about the number of people who could die as a result of swine flu this winter.
According to the Government the virus could claim 65,000 lives if 30 per cent of the population became ill.
The gloomy warning came on the day Sir Liam announced new details of the National Pandemic Flu Service for England, which should be up and running by the end of next week.
This telephone and internet-based service will give people a diagnosis and allow them access to Tamiflu, which can be picked up by a friend from designated centres around the country.
Speaking yesterday, Sir Liam said new figures showed "exceptional influenza activity" across most of the country in terms of the number of people visiting their GP, except for Yorkshire.
A spokeswoman for NHS Yorkshire and the Humber said although the number of swine flu cases in the region was "steadily increasing", it remained lower than in other parts of the country.
This was probably due to the level of "success" in the region during the containment phase.
The latest figures show the number of people being hospitalised has doubled in the past week, with 652 people now in hospital, 53 of who are in intensive care.
Among those suspected to have swine flu is Cherie Blair. The former Prime Minister's wife has pulled out of a series of public engagements while she battles the illness.
On the issue of vaccines, Sir Liam admitted that the first deliveries in August would not be enough to cover all those in the high-risk groups, but said everybody would be able to get a vaccine as winter progressed.
However, the Royal College of GPs has criticised aspects of the Government's handling of the swine flu epidemic.
The GPs' professional body said doctors have complained about poor out-of-hours planning, confusion over prescribing Tamiflu and how long patients should stay at home if they have the virus.
In Bradford, the local health authorities admitted there had been some difficulty in getting the anti-viral drugs to GPs.
A spokeswoman for NHS Bradford and Airedale said: "We would reassure everyone that while we experienced some operational teething problems, we have worked hard to address these and have put solutions in place to make sure we can process requests from GPs for anti -virals more efficiently."
n President Barack Obama yesterday earmarked $1.825bn (1.11bn) in emergency funding to help to fight the spread of swine flu.
The money is part of $7.65bn (4.7bn) already approved by Congress for the United States Health Department. Latest statistics show that 211 people in the US have died of the illness.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
