From today's Daily Mail:The swine flu outbreak was a 'false pandemic' driven by drug companies that stood to make billions of pounds from a worldwide scare, a leading health expert has claimed. Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, accused the makers of flu drugs and vaccines of influencing the World Health Organisation's decision to declare a pandemic. This led to the pharmaceutical firms ensuring 'enormous gains', while countries, including the UK, 'squandered' their meagre health budgets, with millions being vaccinated against a relatively mild disease. A resolution proposed by Dr Wodarg calling for an investigation into the role of drug firms has been passed by the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg-based 'senate' responsible for the European Court of Human Rights....

Resistant strain discovered in Cardiff hospital, prompting concern among health officialsDoctors in Wales have discovered a Tamiflu-resistant strain of swine flu that has been spreading from patient to patient in a Cardiff hospital.The emergence of an easily transmissible, resistant strain is a worrying development for health officials and appears to be the first documented case in Europe.Five patients at University Hospital Wales, in Cardiff, were infected and isolated for treatment. All had severe underlying conditions that left them with weakened immune systems. At least three had acquired the infection in hospital.There have been a handful of reported cases from around the world of Tamiflu-resistant strains of the H1N1 virus. Only one previous case, at a US summer camp, however,...

An Italian inventor has combined faith and ingenuity to come up with a way to keep church traditions alive for the faithful without the fear of contracting swine flu -- an electronic holy water dispenser.The terracotta dispenser, used in the northern town of Fornaci di Briosco, functions like an automatic soap dispenser in public washrooms - a churchgoer waves his or her hand under a sensor and the machine spurts out holy water."It has been a bit of a novelty. People initially were a bit shocked by this technological innovation but then they welcomed it with great enthusiasm and joy. The members of this parish have got used to it," said Father Pierangelo Motta.Catholics entering and leaving churches usually dip their hands into fonts full of holy water - which has been blessed by a priest...

Government estimate of 78,000 newly infected up from 53,000 the week before, but figures still below virus's summer peakThe number of new swine flu cases has risen by almost 50% in the past week, government figures showed today, although the level remains below that seen at the peak of the virus's spread in the summer.There were an estimated 78,000 new cases of swine flu in England in the past week, up from 53,000 in the week before – which in turn was double the number in the previous week, meaning the rate of increase has declined.The weekly tally is also still below the 100,000 weekly cases at the peak of swine flu in July.There are currently 751 people in hospital with the virus, of whom 157 are in intensive care. The number of swine flu deaths in England now stands at 97.While the...

Emergency rules will make it easier to handle anticipated surge in patientsPresident Barack Obama has declared a national emergency in America as swine flu deaths reached 1,000. In Britain, meanwhile, 122 people have died and cases of swine flu have more than doubled in the past seven days.The flu, which has spread throughout much of the world and raised global alarm, has caused the deaths of more than 100 children in the US alone, and is widespread in 46 of America's 50 states.However, the White House said that declaring an emergency was a largely precautionary step aimed at allowing medical officials to bypass certain federal regulations in the event of a genuine disaster.White House officials say the move was similar to precautions taken by coastal areas before a hurricane. "As a...

Deaths from H1N1 virus rise to 122, including four more fatalities in ScotlandThe number of cases of swine flu in England almost doubled this week to 53,000, the chief medical officer said today.Sir Liam Donaldson also said the number of deaths of people in the UK suffering from swine flu had risen from 106 last week to 122 – 93 in England, 15 in Scotland, eight in Northern Ireland and six in Wales.The number of people with the infection in England last week was about 27,000.Donaldson said he was concerned by the high proportion of deaths in younger age groups, describing it as a "very unusual pattern for flu".More than half (54%) of deaths have been in the under-45 age group while 77% have been in the under-65 group.With seasonal flu, the majority of deaths would be expected in the...

Swine Flu Vaccine: Japan is starting to roll out its domestic vaccine for Swine Flu or Shingata [...] Related .....

The advertising watchdog has banned an ad campaign by animal rights group Peta for misleading consumers that swine flu could be contracted by eating meat.Peta's poster campaign stated "Meat kills" in large letters. In the background smaller text listed a range of superbugs including E.Coli, mad cow disease, swine flu and MRSA. The words "swine flu" were more prominent than the surrounding text. A line at the bottom of the ad said: "Go Vegetarian. Peta".The Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint that the poster misleadingly implied that swine flu could be caught be eating meat and that it might cause "undue fear" about how it could be contracted.Peta said it did not intend to suggest that eating meat caused swine flu but wanted to highlight the role that livestock production...

• Health department urges frontline staff to get jab• Inoculation vital in efforts to contain pandemic The Department of Health has ordered NHS bosses across England to ensure that frontline staff get immunised against swine flu amid growing signs that many doctors and nurses intend to shun the vaccine.Chief executives and boards who run hospitals, primary care trusts and strategic health authorities have been told to urgently maximise the number of workers having the jab. Leading DH figures including Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, have written to them six times in the last five weeks stressing the need for action before the second wave of the pandemic causes major problems.Ian Dalton, the NHS's national director of flu resilience, last week warned that vaccination of...

The government's chief commissar for immunisations, Professor David Salisbury, has said that nurses have a "duty" to be immunised againstswine flu. A poll by nursingtimes.net showed that 30% of respondents would refuse to have it. If the government is surprised at the number of nurses who will not have the immunisation, just wait to see what happens when they offer it to doctors. On the facts available to date, I will not be having it. Nor will my family. I will not be the only doctor taking this view.In 1976, after a swine flu outbreak at Fort Dix in the US, a vaccine was hastily manufactured. It had to be withdrawn a few weeks later as it was causing serious neurological problems. Science has moved on since then, you may say. That could not happen now. But, if governments have...

IntroductionThis week’s report from NHS West Midlands shows that the rate of new cases of swine flu continues to slow across the region. Information provided indicates current impact on the local services.Key MessagesPatients presenting at primary care centres with influenza-like symptoms has decreased within the health economy over the last week. The number of people with swine flu admitted...

IntroductionThis week’s report from NHS West Midlands shows that the rate of new cases of swine flu continues to slow across the region. Information provided indicates current impact on the local services.Key MessagesPatients presenting at primary care centres with influenza-like symptoms has decreased within the health economy over the last week. The number of people with swine flu admitted...

This week’s report from NHS West Midlands shows that the rate of new cases of swine flu continues to slow across the region. Information provided indicates current impact on the local services.Key MessagesPatients presenting at primary care centres with influenza-like symptoms has decreased within the health economy over the last week. The number of people with swine flu admitted to hospitals...

Nursing Times has carried out a survey to find out how many of their members would be prepared to have a swine-flu immunisation.Overall 30% of survey respondents answered ‘no’ when asked if they would get immunised when the vaccine became available, compared with 37% who replied ‘yes’. A further 33% remained undecided and answered ‘maybe’.Nursing TimesThe Government’s chief Commissar for immunisations said that nurses had a “duty” to be immunised.Nurses who opt to have the vaccine can expect to be given one of two products, both of which will require two jabs roughly three weeks apart. The majority of swine flu vaccine will be the adjuvant version manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, which contains 4mcg of antigen. The second type, manufactured by Baxter, is a whole virus...

This week’s report from NHS West Midlands shows that cases of swine flu continue to spread across the region. It provides information on the spread of swine flu and its impact on the local services.Key MessagesPatients presenting at primary care centres with influenza-like symptoms has decreased within the health economy over the last week.Activity /Rates – GPsThis shows the number of...

A friend of mine has been taken ill whilst on holiday in England. The hotel my friend was in tried to get a doctor to see her but because one of her symptoms was flu-like she was refused and told to ring the swine flu hotline.She does not have swine flu but because she had no choice she rang it and was told to take tami-flu. Effectively she was told to take an inappropriate drug by a call centre operator who has had about half an hours training, has no medical qualifications or experience and was working from a tick sheet. It is farcical.She was not well enough to to get to the nearest Accident and Emergency Centre, which in any case was an hour's drive away and even if she had wanted to take Tami-flu she could not do so because it is stored at the same place.For all the genuine and...

GMTV star Andrew Castle confronts health secretary, Andy Burnham, over policy of giving drug to childrenThe health secretary, Andy Burnham, today defended giving the antiviral drug Tamiflu to children for swine flu as TV presenter Andrew Castle said his daughter "almost died" after taking it.Burnham was confronted by Castle on GMTV after researchers said the antiviral drug's benefits did not outweigh its side-effects during the flu pandemic.Castle said his older daughter, Georgina, had a "respiratory collapse" and "suffered very heavily" after being "just handed" the drug without a proper diagnosis.The presenter said: "I can tell you that my child – who was not diagnosed at all – she had asthma, she took Tamiflu and almost died."Burnham sympathised with Castle, saying it must have...

Fears of Tamiflu shortages as helpline advisers are connedPeople are conning the swine flu helpline into giving them Tamiflu in case they fall ill, Britain's leading GP has warned. The practice could lead to the creation of private stockpiles and shortages of the drug.Doctors claim some people also pretend to have the H1N1 virus and get the drug because they fear stocks will run out."Some people are deceiving the national flu line in order to get Tamiflu. Doctors tell me that some patients are undoubtedly misusing the service", said Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs.More than 315,000 people received Tamiflu, which costs £16 for a course, in the fortnight after the National Pandemic Flu Service launched in England on 23 July. One doctor who uses the...

Child with possible meningitis was 'failed by system' say parentsThe parents of a two-year-old girl thought to have died from meningitis after they were told she was suffering from swine flu said yesterday that she had been "failed by the system".Georgia Keeling, from Norwich, died after being rushed to hospital on Tuesday. Her parents, Paul Sewell, 21, and Tasha Keeling, 22, said they contacted health services, including NHS Direct, the swine flu helpline and the emergency services, five times after their daughter first developed a temperature on Saturday.The couple said that by Tuesday she had also developed a rash, bruising and had been sick, but their concerns that she might have meningitis were ignored.They said that on two occasions they were told Georgia did not need to be admitted...

IntroductionThis week’s report from NHS West Midlands shows that cases of swine flu continue to spread across the region. It provides information on the spread of swine flu and its impact on the local services.Key MessagesPatients presenting at primary care centres with influenza-like symptoms has decreased within the health economy over the last week.Activity /Rates – GPsThis shows the number...

Swine-lineBack to the grind. The weather does not matter as much now, though irritatingly it is sunny. I was on edge during the last week of the holiday, worrying about how hard it was going to be dealing with swine flu hysteria. I knew from emails that my partners were stressed and, from the detached safety of the North Wales coast, I followed the Jobbing Doctor's day to day experiences.Monday was catch-up day. First, the bit that all family docs dread when they return from holiday. The unexpected deaths. This time there was only one, a previously fit lady in her late seventies who had been admitted with a strangulated femoral hernia and died a few days after surgery from an unexpected pneumonia. As I get older, these deaths affect me more. Perhaps it is my own ever increasing proximity...

Babies are being taught how to use sign language to tell their parents if they are suffering swine flu symptoms.UK and American nurseries are being encouraged to teach youngsters the basic signs for things like "hot", "cold", "pain" and "ill".It is hoped that the children could use the 30 signs to alert parents that they may have swine flu, before they would otherwise know.The children are also shown how to communicate that they want 'more water' or even a 'hug' to make them feel better.Suddenly I can't help but think of the signing baby from Meet the Fockers. The book 'Swine Flu Signs' by Yvonne Lavelle is available online for £2.50.LINKSSwine Flu Signs  ...

The following is the weekly WM report. It shows both a big jump in consultations, but also the WM being now below average.IntroductionThis week’s report from NHS West Midlands shows that cases of swine flu continue to spread across the region. It provides information on the spread of swine flu and its impact on the local services as of 29 July 2009.Key MessagesPatients presenting at primary...

Tally of H1N1 infections rises 10% in week, compared with doubling of cases in previous week, government saysThe increase in British swine flu cases could have reached a plateau, with 110,000 new diagnoses in England last week, the government said today.The new tally is a 10% rise on the 100,000 new cases estimated in the previous week, but the number of cases had doubled in the week prior to that.Deaths linked to the H1N1 virus in England have reached 27, and 793 people with the virus are being treated in hospital; but the number of such patients in hospital has fallen slightly from last week, when there were 840.It was unclear whether the launch of the National Pandemic Flu Service for England had affected the estimated number of cases.Rather than call a GP, people with swine flu are...

A drink-driver woman who claimed that swine flu made her body more susceptible to alcohol has lost her case.Deborah Karen Graham, 48, manager, was convicted of drink-driving when she appeared in Queenstown District Court in New Zealand yesterday.Graham was randomly breathalysed on July 4 and blew 530mcg, 130mcg over the legal limit. She told police she had drunk three glasses of wine.Defence counsel Nicole Murphy told Judge Kevin Phillips Graham had been ill."She had swine flu. She was just getting over it...and she thinks because she had the flu (the alcohol) may have hit her harder. She is highly embarrassed and remorseful about her actions."But Judge Phillips commented: "Swine flu seems to be the 'in' submission for everything at the moment. I reject all that." Graham was fined $550...

• Experts warn workers who contract virus could sue• Businesses have been advised on staff welfareBusinesses could face a spate of legal claims from employees hit by swine flu, experts warn, as concerns mount that firms are not prepared to deal with legal issues arising from affected staff.Personal injury, health and safety, and negligence claims are all likely, according to employment lawyers, as litigation has continued to rise during the recession."I can absolutely see claims in personal injury being brought by employees who say they contracted swine flu at work," said Stephen Robinson, partner in employment law at Davies Arnold Cooper.Caroline Doran, partner in employment law at Sprecher Grier Halberstam, said: "If employers don't take some steps to consider what will happen if...

House of Lords committee expected to accuse ministers of failing to keep promise to set up swine flu helpline by AprilA parliamentary committee is expected to criticise the government for the delay in setting up the national pandemic flu helpline and for giving confusing advice to vulnerable groups and NHS staff.The House of Lords science and technology committee is expected to accuse ministers of failing to keep their promise to set up a flu helpline by April, according to the BBC.The report will question the confusing and conflicting advice given to the public, in particular to vulnerable groups such as expectant mothers.The Department of Health was accused of causing confusion after posting a document on its website reiterating previously issued advice to delay conception during the...

Exeter city council is considering using 19th century catacombs to store the bodies of swine flu victims if the outbreak worsens. They’ve identified the empty underground burial chambers in Bartholomew Street, currently used as a tourist attraction, as a potential mortuary. A council spokesman said the plan would be implemented if the crematorium and cemeteries could not keep up with funeral demands. “We have some empty catacombs in an old cemetery in the city,” he said. “These are 19th century underground burial chambers which are normally a tourist attraction. “They can, however, be safely used for their original purpose and allow us to temporarily store bodies in the remote possibility that the need should arise.” Figures released last night...

Although I am not at all a fan of what the government have done in respect of swine flu I am blogging the current report.What it talks about is a "decrease in trend". I am trying to find out what they mean by that.IntroductionThis week’s report provides information on the spread of swine flu and its impact on the local servicesKey MessagesPCT is meeting the requirements of current...

• Latest figures show 100,000 cases recorded in past week• National Flu Pandemic Service can take 1m calls a weekThere are 840 people seriously ill in hospital with swine flu and 100,000 new cases have been recorded in the past week, according to the government's chief medical officer.The number of people in hospital includes 63 in intensive care.The figures were given by Sir Liam Donaldson during an early afternoon press conference at the Department of Health, providing a weekly update on the progress of the disease throughout Britain.The number of deaths associated with the swine flu outbreak has risen to 30. Last week the government announced there had been 29 deaths in total and 55,000 new cases in the previous week.The National Flu Pandemic Service for England, which started...