Girl aged six and doctor are latest to die in swine flu outbreaks

Published on Monday 13 July 2009 22:00

A SIX-year-old girl and a GP have died after contracting swine flu, it was announced yesterday.

The total number of deaths in the UK linked to the H1N1 virus has now risen to 17, including two in Scotland.

Yesterday, Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland was playing a leading international role in the fight against the flu pandemic as she praised NHS staff.

The latest victims of swine flu were Chloe Buckley, from north-west London, and Bedfordshire GP Dr Michael Day.

Chloe died on Thursday at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington. A post-mortem will be carried out to discover if she had any underlying health conditions. Dr Day died on Saturday in the Luton and Dunstable Hospital. A swab test revealed he had swine flu, although it is not yet known if this was the cause of his death.

Chloe was a pupil at St Catherine's School in West Drayton, London. Headteacher Sara Benn said: "It is impossible to put into words the sorrow that the whole school feels in such tragic circumstances."

Dr Simon Tanner, the regional director of public health for NHS London, said Chloe had contracted the virus in the UK.

"We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family at this difficult time as they come to terms with their loss."

A statement from NHS East of England said staff wished "to extend their deepest sympathies" to Dr Day's family "as they come to terms with their sad loss". Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association's GPs committee, added: "Our first thoughts are for Dr Day and his family and for all other victims of swine flu."

He went on: "While these individual deaths are tragedies for the families concerned, it is very important that members of the public do not panic, and continue to follow health advice about swine flu and managing it if they are infected.

"Doctors have always accepted that there are risks associated with their job."

The deaths come after the first British patient without underlying health problems died on Friday after contracting swine flu. Nearly 10,000 Britons have been confirmed with swine flu, but hundreds of thousands more are thought to have the virus.

All UK governments have ordered enough swine flu vaccine to cover the entire population, with the first doses arriving next month and half of all doses expected by the end of the year.

Yesterday, Ms Sturgeon said it had yet to be finalised who would be first to get the vaccine, but it is likely to be those with other health problems and key workers, such as NHS staff.

Visiting staff at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's H1N1 control room, Ms Sturgeon said that, as with any flu outbreak, a small number of people would die.

"There's nothing to suggest that swine flu is going to cause more deaths proportionately than would be the case with seasonal flu," she said.

"Every death is a tragedy, but unfortunately with every flu outbreak we will see a small number of people die. Most of them will have underlying health conditions that will develop complications and unfortunately die.

"That does not change the fact that this is a mild illness for the vast majority of people."

Like virus that killed 40 million

SWINE flu is closely related to strains responsible for the 1918 pandemic which killed up to 40 million people worldwide, scientists have found.

And evidence suggests that people born after 1920 have little natural resistance to the virus.

US researchers also found swine flu penetrates deeper into the lungs than "normal" seasonal flu and is about five times more harmful, reported the journal Nature.

However, the good news from the research was that Tamiflu and other antiviral drugs were effective against swine flu viruses.

Commenting on the research, Professor Ian Jones, from the University of Reading, said: "This complete analysis of the current H1N1 (strain] is what we've been waiting for."