Parents urged to stay calm despite 'tragedy' of swine flu victim Chloe

Published on Tuesday 14 July 2009 22:03

THE UK government yesterday sought to reassure worried parents following the death of a six-year-old girl who contracted swine flu.

The family of Chloe Buckley, from West Drayton, west London, spoke of their distress after losing their "fun-loving baby girl".

Westminster's Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, described the death as a "tragedy" but said that "lots of children" had suffered from swine flu and made a full recovery after the virus.

It came as figures showed a surge in calls to Scotland's health advice phoneline, NHS 24, linked to the H1N1 pandemic.

Mr Burnham said: "People do need to keep it in perspective – lots of children have already had swine flu and have made a very quick recovery and in the early stages we saw school closures.

"There have been lots of children already having the condition but making a very quick and full recovery."

He added that Britain was at the "front of the queue" for supplies of vaccine and would start to receive them next month.

Chloe's parents, Michael and Jacinta, yesterday said they were satisfied with the medical care she received and asked to be left alone to grieve.

They said: "We are obviously very distressed at the loss of our fun-loving baby girl.

"Nothing can replace her in our lives and we would plead with you to allow us to deal with our loss in private and without further intrusion."

Yesterday it emerged that swine flu sufferer Dr Michael Day died from natural causes with the major factor being a blood clot to the lungs..

NHS 24 revealed that calls to its service in Scotland were up 30 per cent compared to the same week last year.

In the past two weeks, the number of deaths linked to swine flu has increased to 17.

Between 29 June and 5 July, NHS 24 received 32,886 calls to its main service, plus 5,404 to its specialised Scottish Flu Response Centre.

The following week – 6-12 July – calls dropped slightly to 29,449 to the main service and 5,394 to the flu centre.

Calls to NHS Direct in England have also increased substantially in the past two weeks.

NHS 24 medical director Dr George Crooks said: "We are currently receiving on average up to 30 per cent more calls to our core service than we would expect to see at this time of year and we believe that most of this is attributable to people with concerns about swine flu.

"However, there are still a variety of home-grown common cold and flu-like bugs circulating in the community as well."

"We would advise the public in Scotland that the risk from this virus remains low and that we can all play our part in slowing the spread by following simple hygiene procedures."

Nearly 10,000 Britons have now been confirmed with swine flu after lab tests, but hundreds of thousands more are thought to have the virus.

The number of cases is now being estimated as the numbers rise too high for individual patients to be swabbed and counted.

The government has 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, Dr Alan Hay, director of the London-based World Influenza Centre, said the virus was not behaving as expected.

"We were not expecting this level of circulation of the virus at this particular point in time.

"When people were talking a few weeks ago, we expected it to peter out given the time of year not being a traditional flu time.

"However, it has certainly increased more than we anticipating but people are now monitoring the situation intensively and dealing with it appropriately."

Dr Hay said the fact that cases had not increased to the same extent in Scotland as in England may be because schools had already closed for summer north of the Border. He also said that experts had been anticipating bird flu to be the source of any pandemic.

Dr Hay said he expected cases would peak in the next week or two before decreasing, and that there would be a resurgence during the traditional flu season in the winter.

He said as the number of cases increased, deaths linked to the virus would also rise.

BISHOP CROSSES OFF HOLY WATER

A BISHOP has advised churches not to use holy water in a bid to halt the spread of swine flu.

The Right Rev John Gladwin, Church of England Bishop of Chelmsford, has advised members of his diocese to improve hygiene by removing receptacles for water. He said: "Some churches have a stoup for holy water near the entrance to the church door, and people are invited to dip a finger in this and to make the sign of the cross as a reminder of their baptism.

"This practice should be suspended," he said.