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Vulnerable urged to get swine flu vaccine

The media has been full of stories this week that swine flu is ‘back’, raising fears of a ‘new epidemic’.  It was reported that the flu has claimed the lives of 10 British adults in recent weeks although most of the fatalities had underlying health conditions. Numbers of people hospitalised with severe flu have also risen and there have been several outbreaks in schools and on a military base.

The Health Protection Agency has warned that although the overall number of cases of flu is not unusual for this time of year, the number of severe cases of H1N1 (swine flu) is higher than expected in England.

For most people, H1N1 flu is a mild illness lasting seven to ten days. However, some groups of people are at greater risk of serious illness if they catch it and have been urged to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

A spokesperson for the NHS stressed however that the actual number of people visiting their GP with flu is low and there is no indication yet of another swine flu epidemic. The virus is not known to have mutated into a new strain or developed any new characteristics. He added that as the H1N1 virus was widely circulating last year, it is not surprising that it is still present this winter.