Family baffled after tot contracts swine flu

Published on Tuesday 9 June 2009 10:06

THE mother of one of Scotland's youngest swine flu victims has admitted no-one has any idea how he could have caught it.

Scott Wallace was only 23 months old when he tested positive for the infection last week.

The mother of the boy, who turned two in quarantine, said he had made a full recovery and that there was too much hysteria surrounding the outbreak.

Elaine Wallace, 36, from Livingston, was stunned when public health officials informed her that her son had swine flu three days after he was tested for it.

She said the family had not been on any recent holidays and no-one else they knew has tested positive for the illness.

"It's all a bit of a mystery," said the full-time mother. "We've all been tested and were negative. The only thing I can think of is that my other son had tonsillitis and had been into hospital, and I was in with a kidney infection, so it could have come through that route.

"It took them from a week past Sunday when he was swabbed until the Wednesday to be diagnosed – they said that was because they didn't have any obvious reason to suspect he would have swine flu.

"We'd taken him to the doctors because he had a rash and thought at first it could have been meningitis."

As soon as the diagnosis was made her other two children – seven-year-old twins Ryan and Zoe – were kept off school, while father Brian, 41, stayed off his work at a factory.

They were all given Tamiflu as a precaution, and anyone who had spent more than an hour in Scott's company had to be tested, but no other related cases were found.

As a precaution, he has been quarantined in his home, although that will expire today.

"He's completely fine now," added Mrs Wallace. "He's quite an active wee boy and he began feeling better within himself, and even though we were shocked at first when we got the results, seeing him move about and things like that made us feel better about it.

"It makes me feel terrible to think parents were keeping their kids off school because of this, because there was never any chance of them having it.

"The whole thing has been blown out of proportion. He was actually much more unwell when he just had normal flu."

The Scottish Government has said there are now too many cases in the country to establish exactly where every one came from without an obvious travel-related link.

Microbiologist and expert on swine flu Professor Hugh Pennington, of Aberdeen University, said: "It's not a great surprise that they don't know where it's come from, and the same goes for a number of cases across the country.

"We know that some people can be infected without showing any signs or knowing it.

"Children of that age are more susceptible to viruses like the flu, and children in general are the ones that are affected.

"Of course it would be nice to know where the infection came from but it is not always possible."