UK swine flu cases: “to soar”

Britain’s Health Secretary is forecasting there could be 100,000 new swine flu cases a day in the UK by the end of August. And the government says trying to contain the virus is no longer an option.

Andy Burnham told parliament that Britain had to prepare for the worst case scenario.

He said: “There are now, on average, several hundred new cases every day. This creates challenges on the ground and pressure on services.

“We have always known it will be impossible to contain the virus indefinitely, and that at some point, we would need to move away from containment to treating the numbers falling ill.”
The World Health Organisation declared Swine Flu was a pandemic last month. More than 77,000 have been affected worldwide.

A number of people have died, including three in Britain.

The British government’s advice to anyone with flu
symptoms is not to go to their doctor for fear of spreading the disease. Instead they should quarantine themselves in their home.

Copyright © 2009 euronews

tags: infection, United Kingdom