Teenage boy among four more swine flu deaths in Scotland

Published on Thursday 22 October 2009 16:08

A TEENAGE boy was among four people with swine flu to have died in the last 24 hours in Scotland, it was announced today.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said all had significant underlying health problems.

The four were a 16-year-old boy, a 77-year-old man, a woman, 54, from Glasgow and a 47-year-old woman from Fife.

The deaths bring the total in Scotland to 21 since the outbreak began in spring.

Ms Sturgeon said: "It is with sadness and regret that I have to report an additional four deaths from swine flu in the last 24 hours."

News of the deaths come a day after the launch of a mass vaccination programme in the UK for swine flu.

Figures showed the number of people with swine flu increased to 14,650 last week. There were 75 people in hospital today with the H1N1 virus, 15 of them in intensive care.

Ms Sturgeon said 108 people were hospitalised last week – up from 64 the previous week.

She said: "The NHS continues to cope and continues to cope well.

"Obviously, that kind of increase in hospitalised cases does put pressure on the National Health Service."

The details emerged as the NHS gears up for the winter flu season.

New revised "worst case" assumptions for the UK were published today to take into account better information on the effect of the virus.

Despite the spate of deaths, the number of people estimated to catch the virus over the season had dropped from 30% to 12% – which is about 600,000 Scots.

Ms Sturgeon said about 1,000 people in Britain may die from swine flu this winter.

Based on population share, this is likely to mean 100 deaths in Scotland, a significant drop from the previous estimate of up to 2,000.

Officials estimate 2.5% of the population could become infected at any one time, which equates to about 127,000 people in Scotland.

Up to 3,000 Scots could be hospitalised with the virus over the winter.

Ms Sturgeon said: "We could be looking at up to 1,000 deaths across the UK.

"That's a considerable decrease on previous planning assumptions and for that reasons, is very welcome indeed.

"Of course 1,000 deaths is still a significant number of deaths and those deaths are avoidable, which is why it is so important to press the importance of people – particularly in risk groups – getting vaccinated."