Ten new UK swine flu cases confirmed

Published on Monday 11 May 2009 22:11

TEN new cases of swine flu were confirmed in the UK yesterday, bringing the total to 65.

The Health Protection Agency said that another seven adults and three children had contracted the disease.

The news came as four schools in England reopened after being closed when pupils became infected with swine flu.

Researchers yesterday also backed up the decision of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to increase the pandemic threat level to five on a scale of one to six.

Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, said: "Our early analysis would suggest this is going to be an outbreak comparable to that of the 20th century pandemics regarding the extent of its spread.

"It's very difficult to quantify the human health impact at this stage, however."

The researchers looked at data from Mexico, and estimated that between 6,000 and 32,000 infections had occurred by the end of April. This suggests the percentage of fatal cases from swine flu ranges between 0.4 per cent and 1.4 per cent, according to the study published in Science.

Yesterday, the Scottish Government said that ten possible cases of swine flu were under investigation, but no new cases had been confirmed.

One probable case in Lothian is still awaiting test results. So far, five people in Scotland have been confirmed with the virus.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "The lack of further confirmed or probable cases indicates that our policy to disrupt the spread of the virus is proving effective. It is likely that we will see further cases in Scotland but I am pleased that we have seen very limited person-to-person transmission."

The freshly confirmed infections in England are spread across the country, with two in London, four in the east, three in the north-west and one in the south-east. Medical experts are continuing to investigate another 336 possible cases.