Swine flu: Health chiefs want to blood test school children

Published on Thursday 24 September 2009 10:24

SCHOOL children should be blood tested to check the spread of swine flu, a leading health body said today.

Health Protection Scotland said that such a test could reveal whether people were building up an immunity to the bug.

They want to test school children because they have proved most susceptible to the H1N1 infection.

However only one or two secondary schools would need to take part in the tests, which would not be compulsory.

Dr Jim McMenamin, Consultant Epidemiologist at Health Protection Scotland, told BBC Good Morning Scotland: "What we are proposing is that to get a better idea of the spread of this infection that there is a limited opportunity for us to look at a very small number of the school population.

"We are particularly interested in the school population because the highest rates of presentation with H1N1 infection are in kids between the ages of 0-4 and 5-14.

"So for the secondary school population we are proposing that at most one or two Scottish schools and perhaps a similar number in other parts of the UK would be asked to volunteer to take part in an investigation to see if H1N1 is spreading in their particular school.

"Within any school every pupil and their parents would be asked do they consent to this, it's not something that would be forced on them."

He said that Health Protection Scotland have not yet heard whether any school would want to take part.

Earlier this month the Queen called off a visit to the leading private school Gordonstoun School in Moray after a suspected outbreak of swine flu among pupils.

Mr McMenamin said that the proposal followed a suggestion by the Scientific Advisory Group, which advises the UK government on swine flu.

He said that information gleaned from blood tests could prove useful in planning how to deal with the outbreak.

He said: "The opportunity provided by a blood test is that you are able to see have people actually developed an immunity to swine flu and if they have little if any symptoms.

"That's particularly important when we are planning out for the winter period about how many people might be affected and how easily spread is this virus between people because it might not always produce symptoms.

"That would be important for us when we are working out the total number of people who might be affected as we move into the winter period."