A FLU pandemic sits alongside flooding as one of the biggest risks facing Cumbrian communities.

The county’s public health boss says it’s only a matter of time before a major flu outbreak hits the county.

However Colin Cox, director of public health at Cumbria County Council, stresses that they are prepared.

He was speaking to BBC Radio Cumbria on the 100-year anniversary of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

A global disaster, it claimed the lives of hundreds of Cumbrians and killed millions across the globe.

A century later, Mr Cox said another flu pandemic is one of the scenarios at the Cumbria’s community risk register, which also includes flooding and other potential major incidents.

“It is at the top of the risk register partly because it would be serious and partly because another pandemic is very likely, though not necessarily on the scale of 1918,” he said.

“Pandemic flu does happen. In fact there have been four since 1918. It’s not a risk, it’s a certainty. The question is, how serious will it be?”

Mr Cox said that this can vary considerably.

The last one was the 2009 swine flu pandemic, which he said was fairly small compared to others previously.

Globally, it was responsible for over 200,000 deaths - compared to the 1918 pandemic, which killed more than 20 million people.

Mr Cox stressed that they have plans in place to ensure they are prepared to deal with a future pandemic.

That includes distributing antiviral drugs to try and stop its spread.

He said local services also need to have their own contingency plans in place to deal with a range of scenarios.

“We are trying to help the services to consider what they would do in a situation where 10 per cent of their staff were off sick because it had hot them or they were looking after children,” he explained.

Mr Cox added that a flu pandemic is different to seasonal flu, which is around every winter. This type can be vaccinated against in advance via the annual NHS flu jab scheme.

However pandemic flu has no prior warning, and it can take time for a vaccine to be developed.

Mr Cox said Cumbria needs to be prepared, but there is no need for the public to panic about it.

He said that even if a pandemic did hit, the vast majority of people who contract flu do recover.