Four cases of swine flu confirmed in Cumbria
Last updated at 12:18, Thursday, 16 July 2009
IT has now been confirmed there have been four cases of swine flu in Cumbria.
In Barrow, a 23-year-old shop worker became the first confirmed case of swine flu in South Cumbria last Thursday, while a small number of workers at Sellafield are being monitored for the virus. Before the Barrow outbreak, the county’s only confirmed case was an American tourist staying in Carlisle.
The containment stage of the outbreak is over, and all cases with flu symptoms reported to GPs are being treated as swine flu. The government has also announced that the whole population is to be vaccinated.The vaccine is set to be available in September or October and Professor John Ashton, director of public health with NHS Cumbria, said the first vaccinations would be made available to key NHS workers and vulnerable people – with mass vaccination to follow.
Prof Ashton said: “What we are really trying to address now is the issue of how we are going to vaccinate 500,000 people, because that is a big job.
“There may be two doses needed each. It is a big logistical exercise and we are working on how that will be done. People are concerned about this flu, so I think we will have a high take-up.
“Earlier this month we had the first case in Cumbria and we’ve now had four confirmed cases in Cumbria. The last figures for the North West was 200.”
Dr Sohail Ashraf, consultant in communicable disease control with the Health Protection Agency’s Cumbria and Lancashire health protection unit, said vaccinations could be given through health and social care staff, occupational health services, school health services, mobile vaccination centres or mass vaccinations at primary care centres. Prof Ashton said the total number of cases was no longer being confirmed, but in Cumbria one in every five suspected cases was being tested to get an idea of the actual spread.
He added: “In Cumbria we are doing this sample to see what proportion is actually positive.”
With the school summer holidays starting and an influx of visitors, hotels, youth hostels and guest houses are being asked to make sure they know the correct procedure.
Prof Ashton said: “If they have someone that is poorly, they should phone a GP. The other side of that is quite a lot of people from Cumbria will be going on holiday and they need to follow that advice wherever they go. If it is this country or abroad, we don’t want people causing trouble for local health services by turning up and contaminating them if they have flu.
“The key message we want to get across is that people who think they have swine flu should contact services from home. What we are very keen to do in Cumbria is set the right tone – getting the tone between panic on one hand and complacency on the other. What we don’t want is people who think they may have swine flu going into hospitals, GP surgeries and health centres. That can cause chaos to services if people who think they have it turn up at accident and emergency.”
He added: “Schools are breaking up and with a bit of luck and a following wind it will settle down as people are outdoors and not breathing over each other in classes, but on the other hand in the other direction, people go on package holidays and are in planes breathing the same air, so it might get spread like that.”
He also said it was important that people with symptoms who are prescribed Tamiflu, the anti-viral drug which reduces the illness and inhibits its spread, send a ‘flu friend’ to get it.
Prof Ashton said: “Remember, every winter we have thousands of people who die from ordinary seasonal flu. They tend to be elderly, frail people who are getting to the end of their life, but there are healthy people that will be victims of winter flu too. In Cumbria, several hundred people die from cold-related conditions like chest infections or heart conditions brought on by living in cold houses.”
Plans are also being put in place for a national flu service to allow people to be diagnosed and given a voucher for antivirals either online or via a central call centre, which should relieve pressure on GPs.
Dr Ashraf said: “We are reasonably confident that they (GPs) should be able to manage until national systems are in place.”
Cumbria Resilience Forum, set up in the wake of the Civil Contingency Act 2004, includes police, fire ambulance, the primary care trust, Health Protection Agency and local government, who come together to examine risks, including pandemics. Prof Ashton also said everybody had to make their own contingency plans for things like childcare and transport.
Mike Smythe, head of resilience at Cumbria County Council, said: “We’re talking about five years of planning for a pandemic in which the county council has examined continuity management arrangements that look at how we can manage our critical services and support other agencies to develop their services to the community.”
He added: “We have been looking at potential absence rates and things that would maintain community confidence.
“With schools, the case may be that there are insufficient pupils or unsufficient teachers for that school to operate. We would look at each one on it’s own merits.”
Dr Ashaf said: “If any staff or pupils are unwell, they should stay at home and contact their GP.”
First published at 11:37, Thursday, 16 July 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
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Sorry "A" but if you had swine flu and were very ill I find it hard to believe that you would be on your computer and not in bed feeling sorry for yourself like I'd imagine this flu would cause people to do. Perhaps thats why you werent taken seriously and perhaps a hot lemsip would help?
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I have it, so as my wife and 3 kids.
and we know of 15+ people that have it in kendal, and are on tamiflu
Posted by K on 11 August 2009 at 18:26