British Health Secretary on the swine flu

Alan Johnson on the swine flu. April 29 2009 update.

Three more cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Britain while 76 people are tested for the virus.

Those with the disease include a 12-year-old girl from Torbay, Devon, whose school, Paignton Community College, has been closed while 230 children are offered anti-viral drugs.

The other two victims are a 41-year old woman from Redditch, Worcestershire and a 22-year-old man from northwest London. All three had recently travelled to Mexico and are said to be responding well to treatment.

The Devon schoolgirl was on the same flight back to the UK from Mexico as newlyweds Dawn and Iain Askham from Polmont near Falkirk, the UK's first confirmed cases. They had been on honeymoon in Cancun and are recovering in a Lanarkshire hospital.

Eight people who came into contact with them since their return have tested negative for the virus, Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has said.

But in Devon, many parents at the girl's school are frustrated they were not aware of the outbreak until Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed the latest infections earlier in the House of Commons.

Lisa Walton, 36, who has two sons, Liam and Jack, at the school, said: "We just had no idea about what was happening here. The school had not told us about it, and my son said the pupils were told around 1pm today. Right now we just don't know what to think. Obviously it's a worry."

In the UK, there are 20 possible cases in Wales and 32 in Scotland. They include a second couple, Pete and Jenny Marshall, who also became ill after returning from honeymoon and must remain in their Edinburgh home with a friend as results are awaited.

As the World Health Organisation raised its pandemic threat to level 5, every British household will next week receive a leaflet giving advice on preventing the spread of the disease.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: "To keep the public informed, a mass public health campaign will begin tomorrow, with print, TV and radio adverts.

"The adverts will warn the public about swine flu and remind people to cover their noses and mouths with tissues and then throw the tissue away."

He said the message was to "catch it, bin it, kill it".

Stockpiles of anti-viral drugs, currently enough to cover 33 million people, are being increased to provide for 50 million people.

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.

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[Rachel23C]

i remember when this happend at my school and we found out this girl had swine flu the whole school was shitting themselfs running around calling there perents we all had to go home it was fucking funny

[southstar999]

the vaccination will kill you

[wearechangenorwich]

checkout Russia Today's coverage of swine flu.

I have a playlist on avian/swine flu headlines, many from RT. You won't find this type of coverage on western msn.

Ask yourself, why are they even talking about a man-made flu which does not even nearly reach the fatalities of regular seasonal flu? How much does vaccinating an entire planet earn the vaccine makers? Is it wise to rely on Baxter, given that they recently sent out 72kg of live, un-radiated hybridised bird flu virus in their vaccines?

[nomrtuna]

do you know that lots of people have diedbecasue of thisillness maybe youshould keep these th52

[Englishbull666]

So what does a level 5 disease mean? So far it has meant that 101 mexicans have died, in a population of 110million. Normal flu in the UK will usually kill about 4000 people a year. That means averaged through the year, 11 people die every day in the UK from flu. But the newspapers don't report on that, because it doesn't sell - why report on normal flu, when there's an outbreak of deadly swine flu. All flu is deadly - to the very young, very old, and people with serious illness

[LordSpectreXII]

So you're saying that some people should die before we do anything about it? Unbelievable. Have you ever heard of risk? Swine flu COULD become a major problem. As long as there is a 1% or more chance, we should be cautious of it.

[Englishbull666]

and what does a level 5 disease actually mean, because at the moment, 2 days on from when I left my first comment, the number of confirmed cases still hasn't reached 20 people in this country. This is now over 5 days on from the first confirmed case in the UK. Also - no deaths in this country. So in this country, the disease affects under 4 people a day, and has a 100% survival rate. Scary stuff.

[taylor1654]

I have 1 week off school because of swine flu, i go to pcsc in torbay :D it's great! :)

[LordSpectreXII]

You do realise it's a Lv5 Diease right?

[Englishbull666]

No. Did bird flu become pandemic? No. It's media scare mongering - because that's what sells papers. There will be a story like this every year from now on, because news publishers round the world know that fear sells stories. There have been 8 deaths so far, and 265 confirmed cases. Normal flu would have affected and killed more people in the first week in January this year