Swine fever: first cases in Britain as WHO raises alert

The deadly swine fever virus first detected in Mexico, where 152 deaths are now reported, can no longer be contained, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced in Geneva. And for the first time, an outbreak has been confirmed in Britain.

The WHO has raised the alert level from three to four, two steps short of a full pandemic. Level four means the virus is beyond containment. The organisation's assistant director-general Keiji Fukuda said it was a "significant step" towards declaring an influenza pandemic, but that a pandemic was not yet considered inevitable.

The British patients are in hospital in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, and are reported to be recovering well. A further seven people who have been in contact with them are being monitored.

According to a report in the Guardian, if the virus spreads in Britain the Health Secretary Alan Johnson will urge the setting up of a support network of friends and relatives, so that anyone displaying symptoms can be quickly quarantined at home. Friends would then collect medicine on their behalf.

Johnson told the House of Commons yesterday that Britain is well prepared for a flu pandemic, with 33 million anti-flu drugs stockpiled.

However, scientists say that while these drugs can contain the disease, a vaccination specifically designed to tackle the new strain would take four to six months to produce.

So far, all cases reported outside Mexico have proved less virulent and there have been no deaths outside Mexico. Scientists say it is possible that the strain discovered in Mexico is mixed with a more serious local virus.

The British Foreign Office has advised against any non-essential travel to Mexico, but has not included the United States in that advisory. Yesterday, the EU health commissioner Androulla Vassiliou caused a stir by advising against traveling to both Mexico and the US and later tried to row back from this position.

In America, the number of confirmed cases has risen from 20 to 42, across five states. The increase is mainly down to the number of confirmed cases among students at a New York high school rising to 28.

Barack Obama, who as reported on The First Post yesterday had to be tested himself for the virus after meeting a Mexican archaeologist who then died from flu-like symptoms, said: "This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert, but it is not a cause for alarm."

In Mexico, all schools are now closed. Health minister Jose Angel Cordova confirmed that the suspected number of deaths has reached 152 and that nearly 2,000 people are believed to be infected. The Mexican army is out in force on the streets of the country, handing out six million masks to prevent the spread of the virus.

Other countries affected include Spain where one case is confirmed and at least 26 others are suspected, Canada, Peru and Israel, where the deputy health minister, Yakov Litzman, has announced that the disease will not be known as swine flu, because religious Jews do not eat pork. "We will call it Mexico flu," he said.

WHAT IS THE VIRUS?
It is a flu virus that affects pigs, often hitting farms in autumn and winter. It rarely spreads to humans. But when it does, the outbreak begins with someone being in contact with an infected pig. It can spread, human to human, through coughing and sneezing. It cannot be spread by eating pork or pork products. The new strain belongs to the most common influenza sub-type H1N1.WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?
The same as with normal flu: fever, coughing, sore throat, body aches. Some patients have also reported diarrhoea and vomiting. In Mexico, those who have died suffered from pneumonia and respiratory failure.

WHO IS CATCHING IT?
According to reports so far, the new strain is most lethal to those in the 25 to 45 age range. This is ominous because it was the hallmark of the Spanish 1918 flu pandemic that killed tens of millions worldwide. However, the circumstances were quite different: many thousands of victims were young men recovering from service in World War One.

CAN THE VIRUS BE CONTAINED?
Too late. There are no travel restrictions into or out of Mexico, though the EU Health Commissioner has advised Europeans to avoid Mexico and the Unites States. In Mexico itself, mass gatherings are banned as are handshakes and and kisses on the cheek. Schools and universities are currently closed.

IS THERE A VACCINE?
No. In Britain two drug companies have been contracted to develop vaccines. Scientists at the National Institute for Medical Research in north London are reported to have spent the weekend working on virus samples provided by the US. Diagnostic kits designed to detect the new virus should be ready this week. HOW WILL BRITAIN DEAL WITH AN OUTBREAK?
Because of the recent bird flu scare, Britain has a stockpile of the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, enough to treat half the population. These drugs will not cure swine flu, but they should reduce its severity and help limit its spread while a purpose-made vaccine is developed - though to make enough for the majority of the population would take months. ·