How the swine flu virus spread across the UK

Press Association

Monday, 6 July 2009

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The virus has swept through the UK since April, infecting thousands of people although most have suffered mild symptoms.

Here is a timeline:

* April 24: The Health Protection Agency says it is monitoring a deadly swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the United States after more than 60 people die after contracting the virus.

* April 26: Iain and Dawn Askham, of Polmont, near Falkirk, are confirmed as the first UK cases of swine flu after returning from their honeymoon in Mexico.

* June 11: The World Health Organisation announces the swine flu outbreak is now a pandemic because its geographical spread is global.

The move means the world is in the grip of a flu outbreak on a scale not seen for more than 40 years.

* June 14: Jacqui Fleming, 38, of Glasgow, becomes the first person in the UK to die after contracting the virus.

Ms Fleming died two weeks after her son, Jack, was born 11 weeks prematurely.

The Crown Office later confirmed Ms Fleming died as a result of multi-organ failure due to influenzal pneumonia (H1N1).

Jack died on June 15 but an NHS Greater Glasgow spokesman said the baby did not die from swine flu.

Ms Fleming, who was said to have had underlying health conditions, lived with her two other children - one aged 18 and one of primary school age - and her long-term partner William McCann in Carnwadric.

* June 27: A 73-year-old man from the Inverclyde area of Scotland dies at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley after contracting swine flu.

The unnamed man, who had serious underlying health conditions, had been receiving treatment in the hospital's intensive care unit for 15 days.

* June 26: Sameerah Ahmad, six, who was born with a rare life-threatening disease, dies at Birmingham's Children's Hospital after contracting swine flu.

Tests on the girl's body revealed she had contracted swine flu, although it is not yet known if this contributed to her death.

She was also believed to have been suffering from a condition which weakened her bone marrow and her immune system, making it difficult for her body to fight infection.

* July 2: The UK has moved past the stage of containing the swine flu outbreak and into the "treatment phase" with hundreds of cases recorded every day, Health Secretary Andy Burnham tells the Commons.

Predicting a huge daily rise in new cases, Mr Burnham says: "Cases are doubling every week and on this trend we could see over 100,000 cases per day by the end of August."

* July 3: A 19-year-old man is confirmed as the first person in London to die after contracting swine flu.

The teenager, from south London, who suffered serious underlying health problems, tested positive for the virus following his death.

* July 6: A nine-year-old child is confirmed as the second person in London to die after contracting swine flu. The child, from south London, had serious underlying health problems.

* July 6: A man and child, believed to be from the Kirklees area of West Yorkshire, become the first people in Yorkshire to die with swine flu. Both had "underlying health issues", an NHS spokeswoman said.

Comments

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Spread of swine flu--how useless have the medical people been?

sandysiev wrote:

Monday, 6 July 2009 at 04:50 pm (UTC)

I find it astonishing that this flu has been allowed to spread so easily into the UK community considering that only a very small number of people in real terms could have brought it back into the UK. We ensure that dogs are quaranteened to prevent infections and yet here we are just a few months down the line and we have what is now going to be huge. The cost to the counrty will now be massive in medical and business costs. And worse the number of people who are not in the greatest health facing the prospect of death. Surely the medical advisors need to go back to the drawing board and re-examine their proceures as it may be that something much much more dangerous is liable to reach these shores sometime in the future. The plans they have set have not worked and if they dont improve them then worse can only follow.

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Re: Sandysiev

mattofdoom wrote:

Monday, 6 July 2009 at 06:53 pm (UTC)

Sandy, the problem is that swine flu can lie dormant for a week or so in humans, displaying no symptoms at all. To prevent the illness entering the country via a person, you would have to either:
(a) Quarantine everyone flying or boating into the UK for a week and a bit, to insure they don't have it, or:
(b) Detain everyone flying or boating into the UK, give them a blood-test, wait for the results, then either free them, or Quarantine them until they are better.

Either way, it's hundreds of thousands of people, PER DAY. You can't pull infrastructure like that out of your hat at a moments notice.

On the other hand, dogs don't need to go in business trips, don't have family abroad, and don't feel entitled to exotic beach holidays, so it has been much easier to effectively ban dog travel for all these years (the other option being the 9 month Quarantine -- a significant percentage of a dog's life time).

Furthermore, swine flu, apart from having a unappealing name, doesn't actually appear to be any more dangerous than regular old human flu, but the media have having a whale of a time trumping it up again now the MP's expenses have petered out. Rabies on the other hand, is far more deadly.

So now you know,
Matt.

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