Re: First swine flu death in London
Re: First swine flu death in London
UK. Fourth person in Britain dies after contracting swine flu - Telegraph
Fourth person in Britain dies after contracting swine flu
A teenager in London has become the fourth person in Britain to die after contracting swine flu, it has emerged.
by Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Published: 3:00PM BST 03 Jul 2009
The 19-year-old man from south London, had 'serious' underlying health problems and it was confirmed after he had died that he had contracted swine flu.
The latest death comes after ministers warned there will be 100,000 new cases of swine flu per day by the end of next month.
Despite the warnings, new research has shown that the public is ignoring advice on how to limit the spread of the virus by washing hands more frequently or disinfecting surfaces more regularly.
Dr Simon Tanner, director of public health for London, said: "There are people out there in the community, and we've talked about one today ? precious individuals that have got really difficult medical conditions ? who are particularly vulnerable when the population has a virus like this in it."
"We've all got a responsibility for their sake," he said.
Jacqui Fleming, 38, of Glasgow, was the first person in the UK to die after contracting the virus last month.
The second victim was a 73-year-old man from the Inverclyde area of Scotland. Then a week ago, six-year-old Sameerah Ahmad became the youngest UK victim to date.
All the people who have died after contracting swine flu already suffered from underlying health problems.
Sir Liam Donaldson, who confirmed yesterday that the UK has moved past the stage of containing the swine flu outbreak and into the "treatment phase", said there was no need for people to resort to the internet to self-medicate.
Sir Liam said: "There's generally a growth in people ordering drugs from the internet worldwide and there's a lot of concern among health authorities that people might buy counterfeit drugs.
"I think this is a similar situation ? people shouldn't buy Tamiflu from the internet.
"We have got a massive stockpile in this country and everybody can have access to it through the National Health Service."
Meanwhile research carried out by the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London and the Health Protection Agency has found that three quarters of people are not concerned about the outbreak of H1N1 and two thirds have not followed any of the measures advised to limit its spread.
A telephone survey of 997 adults between 8 and 12 May asked nine questions including if they had followed advice to wash hands more frequently, increase cleaning of surfaces and discuss with friends and relatives what to do if they fell ill.
Two thirds had not done any of these things.
Being uncertain about the severity of the outbreak and believing that it had been exaggerated were associated with a lower likelihood of change, lead author James Rubin, senior research fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry wrote in the British Medical Journal online.
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<cite cite="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/5733260/Fourth-person-in-Britain-dies-after-contracting-swine-flu.html">
Fourth person in Britain dies after contracting swine flu - Telegraph</cite>
