Swine flu outbreak at pandemic level, says world health chief

Published on Tuesday 9 June 2009 22:04

THE head of the World Health Organisation has said the swine flu outbreak appears to have reached pandemic proportions.

Margaret Chan, the WHO director-general, last night indicated that "on the surface of it" she believes a pandemic has been reached.

Ms Chan says she will hold a conference call with governments today in order to verify some of the reports she has received before making a formal announcement.

The WHO says the virus has infected 26,563 people in 73 countries and caused 140 deaths. Most of the cases have been in North America, but Europe and Australia have also seen a sharp increase in recent days.

The news came as the Scottish Government yesterday confirmed a further 32 people have swine flu, including four toddlers at a Glasgow nursery.

The children are all pupils at Pollokshaws Day Nursery. The local authority-run facility in the city's south side has been closed for a week in an attempt to contain the outbreak.

In all, the government said there were 32 new infections around the country – seven of which are travel related – bringing the Scottish total to 264.

This includes eight healthcare workers infected while treating patients with the virus.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said that while there were "relatively large increases" in the number of infections, the outbreaks were being successfully detected and managed.

She added that the public had no need to be "unduly worried" about the spread of the virus.

Of the new cases, 22 were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde region, eight in the Highland area, with one each in the Lanarkshire and Lothian health board regions. There are 11 patients undergoing hospital treatment for infections. One patient was discharged on Monday, but a further two people have since been admitted.

Three patients remain in intensive care at Paisley's Royal Alexandra Hospital.

A 38-year-old woman from Glasgow who gave birth prematurely, and a 45-year-old man from Paisley are still in a critical but stable condition. A 23-year-old woman from Paisley is in a stable condition.

Another two patients remain in high dependency units, one in the Royal Alexandra, and another at the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow.

Confirmed cases in two primary schools in the NHS Highland area have prompted risk assessments by public health officials. As a result, children from a P3 class at Rothesay Primary and a P6 class at Dunoon Primary have been asked to stay at home for seven days and were issued with Tamiflu. In Glasgow, P5 pupils at Shawlands Primary have also been asked to stay at home for a week.

Ms Sturgeon said: "The excellent response from our public health teams means new cases of the virus are being detected quickly. While this means we are still seeing relatively large increases in the number of confirmed cases, these remain confined for the most part to particular areas and many health boards are not reporting any rise in cases."

The Scottish Government added that an additional 380 possible cases remain under investigation, 290 in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.

A further nine cases in England were confirmed yesterday, bringing the UK total to 675.

Meanwhile, the mother of a two-year-old from West Lothian diagnosed with the virus said she suspects her child became infected after other family members received treatment in hospital for other conditions.

Elaine Wallace, 36, from Livingston, said: "It's all a bit of a mystery. The only thing I can think of is that my other son had tonsillitis and had been into hospital, and I was in with a kidney infection, so it could have come through that route."