Swine flu: Birmingham hospital put on standby
A Birmingham hospital is vaccinating its nurses and calling up reservists to be on standby as the region braces itself for a potential swine flu outbreak.
The World Health Organisation said four in ten of the UK population could catch the deadly disease over the next six months if a pandemic broke out.
Heartlands Hospital, the regional centre for infectious diseases, said action plans were now in place to deal with any cases.
Last night one Walsall family were facing an anxious wait for test results after a daughter showed possible symptoms. The family of four, who did not want to be identified, were tested at Walsall Manor Hospital after returning from a two-week trip to Mexico. The daughter developed symptoms on Thursday. The family were told to stay at home in isolation for two days and are due to get the results today.
Walsall’s director of public health, Dr Sam Ramaiah, said the town was now preparing itself in case of an epidemic.
Two British cases have been confirmed so far, those of Iain and Dawn Askham, of Polmont, near Falkirk, who had been on honeymoon in Mexico.
More swine flu tests are being carried out on 23 people in Scotland and suspected infections have emerged across England and Wales, with the Health Protection Agency awaiting test results.
In the United States New York health commissioner Thomas Frieden reported “many hundreds” of schoolchildren could be sick with the virus.
