Children susceptible to swine flu - UK study

Thursday December 31st, 2009

Children and teenagers are especially susceptible to swine flu, according to new findings which help explain why the virus spread rapidly through schools.

Children are twice as likely as a adults to contract the disease from an infected member of their household, British researchers reported last night.

The findings come from an analysis of some 216 people infected with the H1N1 virus, which causes swine flu.

Experts have called for children to be made a priority for treating swine flu for some time - partly because of the number of deaths of children.

The British government has now launched plans to vaccinate infants against the disease - although the outbreak is fading in the UK.

The study at Imperial College London, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, confirmed that people over 50 are least likely to contract the disease.

Researcher Dr Simon Cauchemez said that early advice to infected people to stay at home might have contributed to the speed of the disease being transmitted through the nation's children.

He said: "At the start of the current flu pandemic we didn't know how different factors affected the risk of transmitting the virus to other people. If we are advising people to stay at home if they develop flu-like symptoms, we need to understand the implications this might have for other household members.

"Our study also suggests that people infected with swine flu might not need to stay at home as long as we previously thought ? if they are only likely to transmit the virus to other people for the first few days of their illness, keeping people off work for a week may be unnecessary and could be detrimental to the economy."

"Household Transmission of 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) Virus in the United States" New England Journal of Medicine, Wednesday 30 December 2009.

Tags: Child Health | Flu & Viruses | UK News

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