Swine Flu

[Perdita]

They once said that a black man would be president when pigs fly.



His first 100 Days and wham!! .......... Pigs Flu!

[Abigail]

A pregnant woman who was admitted to hospital in Scotland after contracting swine flu has given birth prematurely.

The baby was born on Monday afternoon, at 29 weeks' gestation, in the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley. The child is stable in intensive care.

The 38-year-old mother, who is said to be critically ill, is one of several people in hospital with the virus.

The total number of swine flu cases in the UK reached 508 after another 49 cases were confirmed on Friday.

The other people in hospital with the virus include a 44-year-old woman from Renfrewshire who is in intensive care, a women aged 23, and two men aged 45 and 37.

The condition of the 37-year-old man has improved and he has been moved from intensive care to a high-dependency unit.

Of the new cases confirmed on Friday, 27 were in England and 22 in Scotland.
Of those in England, 14 were in London and five were in the South East.
Of the cases in Scotland, 16 were in the Highland health board area, five in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and one in Forth Valley.

The second case in Wales has been revealed to be a 66-year-old GP from Neath Port Talbot, who is recovering after contracting the illness on holiday in the US.

The virus is now in 66 countries, with the majority of cases - including 117 deaths - in Mexico and the US.

The World Health Organization warned it was "getting closer" to declaring a global outbreak.

[Chloe O'brien]

It was on the local news that the newborn baby does not have the swine flu virus and is in a stable condition, which is good news to hear.

While I am typing this I am sneezing all over the keyboard. Pig Flu anyone.

[Abbie]

A guy in the exam last week asked for a tissue cos he has cold and the teacher well invigulator (sp) made a comment about him better not having swine flu, still the jokes carry on

[di marco]

glad the babys ok. i havent really heard anything about swine flu recently

[Abigail]

UN health officials are expected to declare the first global flu pandemic in 40 years, after holding emergency talks on the swine flu crisis.

The World Health Organization called the meeting after a steep rise in the number of cases in Australia.

Hong Kong on Thursday announced it was closing all its nurseries and primary schools for two weeks after 12 students tested positive for the virus.

The last global flu pandemic came in 1968 over the Hong Kong flu.

That pandemic killed about one million people.

A disease is classed as a pandemic when transmission between humans becomes widespread in at least two regions of the world.

The latest virus emerged in Mexico in April and since then thousands of cases have been confirmed throughout North and South America.

The H1N1 strain has spread to 74 countries but the WHO has so far resisted labelling the outbreak a full-blown pandemic.

WHO chief Margaret Chan talked to officials from eight countries with large flu outbreaks on Wednesday in an attempt to confirm the spread of the disease.
She said she believed the situation could be regarded as a pandemic but wanted clear evidence before making an announcement.

The WHO's move follows Australia's confirmation of more than 1,200 cases - a four-fold increase in a week.
All primary schools and nurseries in Hong Kong are to shut for 14 days from Friday in a bid to contain the virus, the territory's chief executive Donald Tsang said.

It follows confirmation that 12 secondary school pupils have contracted the illness. Secondary schools are not yet being ordered to close.

At least 50 people are now confirmed to have the virus in the territory.


The head of the WHO's global influenza programme, Keiji Fukuda, said the situation had "evolved a lot" in recent days.

"We are getting close to knowing that we are in a pandemic situation," he said.

Although most sufferers experience normal flu symptoms and make a full recovery, the WHO has confirmed 141 deaths from 27,737 cases.

The BBC's health correspondent, Jane Dreaper, says classifying the virus as a pandemic does not mean that the virus has suddenly become more deadly.

But it does send a clear signal to health officials and businesses to continue planning for the possibility of large numbers of people catching the virus, she says.

The move may speed up the production of vaccines and prompt national governments to impose measures such as travel bans.

The WHO's emergency committee in Geneva began at 1000 GMT.

[Hannelene]

I thought that this had all died down since there were no reports about it....

[Perdita]

The health organisations are warning that it will become really bad in the coming autumn/winter period and they are urging for vaccines to be stock piled.

[Hannelene]

I am worried
We did have a scare here in Milton Keynes when it first came out and another person was suffering from it in Northampton. But I really believed because it was not in the mainstream news that everything was fine- I guess not

[Abigail]

Often in a pandemic there are several 'waves.' The first one is widespread and affects lots of people. During this time there's time for a vaccine to be produced.

Then it dies down for several months, few cases reported and vaccines are stockpiled. After that comes a second wave, which is worse than the first and often in the winter.

It's already been seen in Australia, the number of cases has increased four fold in the last week because it's their winter flu season.