City may abandon flu containment
Thursday June 18th, 2009
A British city is considering a fresh approach to swine flu after being hit by an epidemic of the disease.
As many as 34 schools in Birmingham are reported to be affected by the virus and many have shut.
Health officials yesterday said the policy of containment was no longer working. This has sought to prevent spread by closing schools and treating a wide range of contacts with anti-flu drugs.
They are now seeking permission from the department of health to move to mitigation.
Britain now has 1,582 confirmed cases of infection and more than a third are in the West Midlands region, with Birmingham at its centre.
Sean Connolly, a local official, told a meeting in the city yesterday: "Containment is too late in Birmingham. We are planning for the mitigation phase," it was reported.
Meanwhile British experts yesterday suggested that children should be the first to get flu vaccine - to prevent the virus spreading in schools.
The proposal came from experts at Warwick University and was published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection.
Researcher Professor Matt Keeling said: "Our models suggest that the larger the household – which in most cases means the more children living at home – the more likely the infection is to spread.
"This doesn't mean that everyone in the household needs to be vaccinated, but suggests that vaccination programmes for children might help control a potential pandemic."
Tags: Child Health | Flu & Viruses | UK News
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