Probe ordered into UK swine flu spending

Monday March 29th, 2010

A senior doctor is to conduct a review of Britain's handling of the swine flu scare, it has been announced.

The British government has been criticised for over-reacting to the threat - ordering millions of doses of treatment and vaccine.

Full crisis measures were put in place last year - with patients able to get drugs simply by ringing a national flu help-line.

The latest figures link some 457 deaths UK-wide to the virus. More than 16,000 deaths have been confirmed globally.

The review is to be led by Dame Deirdre Hine, former chief medical officer for Wales.

Health secretary Andy Burnham said the aim was to improve planning in the future.

He said: "It is important that we look back at the lessons learnt through the review so that the UK remains one of the best prepared countries in the world, and so that we can improve our plans for any future event."

* Meanwhile US researchers warned of the potential threat from drug-resistant swine-flu.

A study of two cases in the USA found that patients took less than two weeks to develop strains of H1N1 virus resistant to the main drug, Tamiflu.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: "While the emergence of drug-resistant influenza virus is not in itself surprising, these cases demonstrate that resistant strains can emerge after only a brief period of drug therapy.

"We have a limited number of drugs available for treating influenza and these findings provide additional urgency to efforts to develop antivirals that attack influenza virus in novel ways."

The findings have been reported on-line by the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Tags: Flu & Viruses | North America | Respiratory | Traveller Health | UK News

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