Two more cases of swine flu in UK

Two more cases of swine flu have been confirmed in the UK, taking the total to 34, the health secretary has said.

Alan Johnson told MPs one of the new cases was a child at one of the five schools that have already closed.

Ten of those diagnosed had not been to Mexico, but there was not yet evidence of "sustained" person-to-person UK transmission of the virus, he said.

However, it was reasonable to expect cases to increase and the situation "could rapidly escalate", he warned.

Symptoms

The latest Britons to be confirmed as having swine flu are an unnamed man in his 30s from North Weald in Essex who had recently returned from the US and a third pupil at Dolphin School, in Battersea, south London, say health officials.

All other pupils and staff at the independent primary school have been given antiviral drugs, the Health Protection Agency said, and the school will remain closed until Monday.

In a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Johnson confirmed that 13 children were among the 34 cases so far confirmed and four schools had closed on the advice of local health protection officers.

A fifth school and a linked nursery had also decided to shut "on their own volition", he said, after two pupils were diagnosed with the virus even though they had not been in class while displaying symptoms.

Mr Johnson told MPs the government had boosted its stockpile of antiviral drugs to cover 80% of Britons and orders were in place for a vaccine when one becomes available.

A new quick-response system was also being developed in case the outbreak escalated, he added.

Mr Johnson explained that he wanted to give people quicker access to antiviral drugs so treatment could begin within 48 hours of symptoms developing.

In order to do this, he plans to relax rules surrounding the distribution of antiviral drugs.

The Department of Health will also co-ordinate arrangements for collection and advice with local Primary Care Trusts.

However, Mr Johnson said the current approach could only hope to delay a more widespread outbreak. "We cannot stop it altogether," he said.

In the event of a wider outbreak, ministers would consider changing the strategy to protect stockpiles and guard against the virus becoming resistant to the drugs.

Exam worry

Shadow health minister Stephen O'Brien said the Conservatives supported the government's aggressive containment strategy.

But he questioned the effectiveness of isolating schoolchildren or staff with symptoms rather than closing schools.

Mr Johnson said the decision to close schools was in the hands of the Health Protection Agency.

He said the matter of exams was "tremendously worrying" for pupils and parents and it was important for them to be kept well-informed.

Speaking later at a press conference, England's Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said: "There's no complacency with these school outbreaks but also we shouldn't overreact.

"This is not some plague that's descended on the school - it's flu; it's largely a self-limiting illness.

"The children who've been put on antiviral drugs as a precaution who have no symptoms, we're doing that on a highly precautionary basis because it helps to reassure people that the problem is being contained and that even these minor symptoms are not passed on to other children."

The government has been criticised for delays to the national flu helpline which, Mr Johnson said, would not be ready until October.

"We've had our problems in the past with revolutionary IT systems that haven't been tested and probed enough," he said.

"And in a situation like a pandemic, I can think of no worse occasion where you've put all your eggs in one basket and it's failed."

The government has pledged ￡4m to the World Health Organization's Pandemic Emergency Fund to help developing countries.