Birmingham Girl Dies Of Swine Flu

A nine-year-old Birmingham girl has died in hospital after contracting swine flu.

Birmingham Children’s Hospital said the girl, who has not been named, had died on Friday. The hospital added that she had been suffering from other health problems previously.

It is the third confirmed death from swine flu in the UK.

A NHS West Midlands spokeswoman said: “We can sadly confirm that a child died at Birmingham Children’s Hospital on Friday evening. The child has since tested positive for swine flu but had other serious underlying health conditions.”

In a statement, Dr Helen Carter, public health consultant at NHS West Midlands, said: “Our thoughts are with the family of the patient at this very sad time. The family has asked for the patient’s identity to be kept private and we will not be releasing any further details.

“We ask that you respect the family’s privacy at this difficult time.

“The West Midlands has seen the highest number of cases of swine flu. It is important to remember that our experience here has been that the vast majority of cases with swine flu are mild.

“I would like to urge everyone that there are some simple steps that the public can take to reduce their chances of catching flu.”

The West Midlands has been declared a hotspot for the disease, with 2,104 confirmed cases so far – more than a third of the UK’s total and more than two-fifths of all the cases in England.

The Health Protection Agency confirmed 588 new cases of swine flu in the region on Monday,

Since Friday, 1,604 cases have been confirmed in England, taking the country’s total to 4,968 and the UK’s total so far to 5,937.

Last week health officials said the West Midlands, along with London which has 1,564 confirmed cases so far, would adopt a policy of outbreak management, with swine flu cases being clinically diagnosed rather than being confirmed by laboratory results.

The new policy means swabbing will take place only for a small number of cases to keep track of the strength of the virus.

Doctors will also use the drug Tamiflu more selectively, targeting only people with symptoms. The drug is unlikely to be handed out to everyone who has come into contact with a swine flu sufferer as a precaution.

Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson stressed that many parts of the country were still in the containment phase. But he warned there could be “tens of thousands of cases” of swine flu each week by the autumn because the virus is more likely to thrive in the colder months.

Sir Liam said: “We still think we are heading for the largest surge of cases in the autumn and winter.”

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, said: “The fact is that any kind of flu can kill people of any age.

“Flu can kill even completely healthy people if they get pneumonia but, if they have got other health problems, they are more likely to get complications.

“Most of the people with swine flu have been saved. There will be occasional tragedies and, of course, every death is a tragedy. But it’s important that people do not panic. It is expected that there will be deaths.”

She said the Health Protection Agency (HPA) is watching closely to work out the rate and type of complications from swine flu.

“As we get more and more data, we can start to assess exactly the kind of complications and we may start to be able to identify groups at higher risk.

“This will help us in the future when we have a vaccine – to be able to vaccinate the people at highest risk.”

Dr Nathanson said experts were being “very, very fastidious” at chasing down cases and recording data that was being used to inform the response to the pandemic.

A 73-year-old man from the Inverclyde area died at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland, on Saturday night.

The unnamed man, who, like the Birmingham girl, had serious underlying health conditions, had been treated in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit for the past 15 days.

The first UK fatality, Jacqui Flemming, 38, who had just given birth prematurely, died two weeks ago at the same hospital. She also had other health problems.

Elsewhere, six revellers were sent home from the Glastonbury festival over the weekend with suspected swine flu and three or four ball boys and girls suffering from a “flu-like illness” were asked to stay away from the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

Swine Flu ‘out of control’ In UK Hotspots

Parts of Britain now have so many cases of swine flu that it cannot be contained, it was revealed today.

In the worst hit areas, antiviral treatment will only be given to people with symptoms, and schools will no longer be closed.

Speaking this morning, Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, and Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, said that there were hotspots where swabbing and lab confirmations of the virus were now putting an unjustifiable strain on time and resources.

These areas, including the West Midlands and London, are now moving from the containment phase, which is led by the Health Protection Agency, to outbreak management, led by the strategic health authorities and local health trusts.Mr Burnham said that, as of this morning, there were 3,597 lab-confirmed cases of swine flu in the UK.

“The vast majority of these cases have shown only mild symptoms, though some cases have been more serious,” he said.

“Our approach has focused on containing the spread and working with the local NHS to identify cases and isolate them as quickly as possible and treat them with antivirals and treat those around them and offer prophylactic treatment to those around them.

“This is very resource-intensive, but it has been highly successful.”

He added that, while containment had worked very well, the Department of Health had never been under any illusions that it would be able to prevent the spread indefinitely.

He said that, following a meeting of ministers yesterday, the Department of Health had written to all the flu directors at the strategic health authorities to alert them to the need to move to outbreak management. However, he added that the containment strategy remained in place and outbreak management allowed for flexibility in how different areas of the country dealt with the varying severity of the virus’s spread.

In the outbreak management phase, cases of swine flu are determined by clinical diagnosis rather than lab confirmation.

A scientific committee is meeting over the coming days to advise the Government on how to implement treatment. It will consider whether to target only those most vulnerable cases, such as pregnant women and people with underlying chronic health conditions.

Sir Liam Donaldson said that, in this scenario, it may be a better strategy to allow those people with mild symptoms to get through the virus with Paracetamol.

The secretary of state also confirmed that the first of the 60 million doses of the vaccine ordered are expected to arrive by late August and that contracts had now been signed with GlaxoSmithKline and Baxter to secure enough vaccine for the whole population.

Sir Liam added: “In all previous pandemics, excess mortality above the rates of seasonal flu has occurred for about three years afterwards. It’s not just after this winter, it’s the one after that and the one after that. Use of the vaccine will make some impact this year as it is rolled out and even more in the years after.”