Second swine flu death in Scottish hospital

Published on Sunday 28 June 2009 21:59

A SCOTTISH pensioner has become the second person in the UK to die from swine flu. The man, aged 73, died in Paisley's Royal Alexandra Hospital, two weeks after a 38-year-old woman succumbed to the virus there.

The man, from the Inverclyde area, had "serious underlying health conditions" and had been in intensive care for 15 days.

Britain's other swine flu victim, Jacqueline Fleming, from Glasgow, also had underlying health problems and had given birth to a premature baby two weeks before she died. Her baby son, Jack, who did not have swine flu, died the day after.

In another development, a student from Edinburgh University and a ten-year-old child were among five possible cases of swine flu at the Glastonbury music festival in Somerset.

Britain remains the only European country to have recorded deaths from swine flu. The majority of deaths have been in Mexico and North America.

Scotland's chief medical officer, Dr Harry Burns, said a second death in the same area reflected the fact that the West of Scotland was the country's hotspot for the virus.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the patient at this tragic and very sad time. The family have asked for the patient's identity to be kept private. We are respecting their wish.

"Although it is concerning that the patient had swine flu, we are aware that the patient had very serious underlying health issues."

A spokesperson for the dead man's family said: "Our beloved relative was private in life and we would ask that his privacy continues to be respected as we try to come to terms with our loss."

Ms Sturgeon said the risk of contracting the virus was still low but re-emphasised the need for basic precautions. "It's important to remember that the vast majority of those who have H1N1 are suffering from relatively mild symptoms," she said.

"I would like to offer my reassurance that the risk to the public remains low but would also urge everyone to do what they can to help slow the spread of the virus by remembering to follow simple hygiene procedures."

Today, the Scottish Government is due to update the number of confirmed cases in Scotland, which increased by 72 to 922 on Friday. Nearly all of the new cases – 61 – were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area. The number of cases across the rest of UK rose by more than 500 to top 3,400.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association (BMA), said the early signs of the flu pandemic seemed to be of a strain that was particularly mild.

Speaking at the start of the BMA's annual conference in Liverpool yesterday, she said: "Flu can always go on to be more serious and this pandemic seems to be responding in much the same way as seasonal flu does.

"But we are watching it very much more carefully. That's reasonable because it's a new type of flu and we have to watch it carefully to try to predict what the pattern will be."

Dr Nathanson said that, in a year where seasonal flu was bad, 15,000 people could end up dying.

At the moment, it seemed swine flu was no worse than seasonal flu and might actually be milder.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, the BMA chairman, said in the United States, the percentage of deaths compared with the total number of H1N1 cases was small.

He said: "Any death is a tragedy and obviously people will be concerned. But at the moment at least, the strength of the virus appears to be low.

"We don't know all the details, but it seems with these deaths the people have other health problems as well. It may not just be flu alone that is involved.

"But one has to keep an open mind because flu is a very variable thing. It can change."

Dr Nathanson said, although the flu was mild, the containment strategies being used were important because the more the virus was held back, the more likely it was that a vaccine would become available to cope with larger numbers of people potentially falling ill.

Hugh Pennington, a microbiologist and emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, said older people who had contracted the virus had suffered the most, but most cases were among younger people, especially teenagers.

He said the elderly were more likely to have other risk factors, such as heart and lung problems and diabetes, but the virus may prove to have less effect on them than winter flu.

Prof Pennington said all eyes were on Australia to see what effect the virus would have against seasonal flu as the country headed into winter.

He said it was possible warm summer temperatures and the school holidays in Scotland might prevent the virus spreading from the main outbreak areas, such as Greater Glasgow.

He said the virus would remain with us for years to come, although its likely long-term impact remained unknown.