School closed amid swine flu fears for boy, 5

Published on Tuesday 12 May 2009 22:06

A SCOTTISH primary school has been shut for a week after becoming caught up in the swine flu scare.

The move was ordered by health secretary Nicola Sturgeon after it was revealed that a five-year-old boy from Greenock had been moved on to the "probable" list of those who had contracted the new strain of flu.

His school, Ravenscraig Primary, becomes the first in Scotland to be closed as a precautionary measure.

The boy was yesterday diagnosed with influenza A and is expected to be confirmed as having contracted the H1N1 swine flu strain today, along with his mother, 45, who was put on the probable list over the weekend.

Ms Sturgeon said the decision to shut the school was based on the experience in England, where early closure had apparently stopped new cases from developing.

"This is a precautionary measure," she said last night at a hastily arranged press conference. "We hope by doing this we will be able to disrupt the spread of the virus."

The 189 children at the boy's school have been told to stay home for seven days and his 23 classmates and teacher will also be given Tamiflu to combat any possible infection.

The boy's symptoms first became obvious at an after-school club on Tuesday evening, and the 17 other children there, aged five to 12, have also been told to stay home for a week and will receive Tamiflu.

Local health and Inverclyde Council officials were trying to contact parents last night.

The boy's mother was a contact of the country's fifth confirmed case of swine flu – a 19-year-old from Greenock whose father works offshore in Mexico. And there are four more possible cases being be tested connected to the new probable case.

In total, ten people are being tested for possible infection in Scotland, including six travel- related cases.

But the Scottish Government revealed that a patient previously classed as a probable case – a woman from the Lothian area – has tested negative for H1N1 infection.

Yesterday, three new cases of swine flu were confirmed in England. Two children and one adult, all from London, were diagnosed with the virus – all contacts with previously confirmed cases. This brings the total number of people in the UK infected with swine flu to 68.

Swine flu continues to spread to more countries, with Thailand and Finland reporting their first confirmed swine flu cases in people who had just arrived from Mexico yesterday. Cuba and China – both countries which had imposed strict measures on flights and travellers from Mexico – also reported their first confirmed cases.

At least 61 people have died of swine flu around the world, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed more than 5,250 cases of infection.

A study published in the journal Science estimated Mexico alone may have had 23,000 cases of swine flu.

The researchers also predicted the infection was likely to spread around the world in the next few months and infect a third of the global population.

The study, by researchers at London's Imperial College, found that swine flu had "full pandemic potential", spreading easily from person to person and infecting around one in three of those who come into contact with it.

But the study's author, Professor Neil Ferguson, said it was too early to say whether the virus would cause deaths on a massive scale, or prove little more lethal than normal seasonal flu.

The WHO said that the new flu virus could still mutate into a more virulent form and spark a flu pandemic that could be expected to circle the globe up to three times.

The impact of any pandemic would vary, because a virus that caused only mild illness in countries with strong health systems could become "devastating" in those with weak health systems, shortages of drugs and poorly equipped hospitals, the organisation said.

The new virus appears to be more easily spread than seasonal flu. Regular seasonal flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide annually, with a fatality rate of less than 0.1 per cent.

Seasonal flu has a so-called "secondary attack rate" – the percentage of contacts who catch it from an infected person – of between 5 and 15 per cent, according to the WHO.

"Current estimates of the secondary attack rate of H1N1 range from 22 to 33 percent," it said.

Yesterday, Westminster Health Secretary Alan Johnson said that UK scientists were "very close" to developing a vaccine. for swine flu.

He said he hoped to make an announcement to parliament about developments in a debate on swine flu tomorrow.

Last week it was revealed that Health Protection Agency scientists have worked out the genetic fingerprint of the virus, which will help them to understand how it operates and to identify the parts that can be used to manufacture a vaccine.