Swine flu: Up to 160 Britons held in quarantine overseas



At least 160 Britons are in quarantine worldwide because of swine flu, the Foreign Office said today.

A spokeswoman said assistance was being given to people in China, Singapore, India and Egypt.

Not all will be suffering from the virus. Some will have been quarantined after being in contact with people who are.

The spokeswoman said there were likely to be other people abroad being kept in quarantine who had not sought help from the Foreign Office.

It comes as experts said children under the age of 14 have become 'super-spreaders' of the virus, leaving England battling a raging epidemic.



Prepared: Masked Italian students arrive at Stansted as news breaks that swine flu cases in England doubles in a week to 100,000

The number of swine flu cases has doubled in a week to 100,000 with most of the new cases among children below 14 years old, according to officials.

A third of those who have died from the virus have been under 15 and 20 per cent of those who have ended up in hospital were under the age of five.

The NHS is now planning for up to 65,000 deaths from swine flu, with 30 per cent of the population - and 50 per cent of children - catching the infection.

Meanwhile, a British family on holiday in Bodrum, Turkey, have been put in quarantine in hospital after a six-year-old boy was diagnosed with the virus.

The child, who has not been named, was spotted after thermal cameras showed he was extraordinarily hot and tests later found he had swine flu.



Head doctor at the 75th State Hospital Dr Levent Ozbek said: 'After further investigations and treatment, the family will be our guests in the hospital where all necessary treatment is given to the patients.'

The Health Protection Agency yesterday said for the first time that the disease was probably at epidemic levels - or one in 500 people reporting flu-like illness.



It makes it the most virulent flu outbreak since the winter of 1999/2000, when 21,000 lost their lives.



Officials have also warned that a third of those who have died so far had no serious underlying health problems.



Such is the level of concern that the new National Flu Pandemic Service website crashed within minutes of going live after receiving 2,600 hits a second, or 9.3million an hour.



The dramatic news emerged as:



Universities warned campuses may have to close in the autumn if the epidemic gets worse;



GPs started to cancel summer holidays to deal with extra cases and call in temporary staff to cover for sick colleagues;



Small businesses appealed for extra help over fears they would be driven to the wall through absences and swine flu sickies.



Alarm: Workers at one of the 19 National Pandemic Flu Service call centres answer calls from people concerned about swine flu

Emergency website: The National Pandemic Flu Service website crashed within minutes of going live after receiving 2,600 hits a second

Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson coined the phrase 'super-spreaders' to describe children under 14.



He said yesterday that 26 people in England and four in Scotland are believed to have died.

The figure is no different from last week because further investigations have revealed that some who were listed at that time had not actually died from the virus.

But for the first time, Sir Liam was able to announce that around 16 per cent of those who had swine flu on their death certificates were perfectly healthy and were on no medication.



A further 17 per cent had only mild and moderate conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

The rest had serious health problems undermining their immune systems, such as leukaemia.

Cause for concern: Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson said around 16 per cent of those who died of swine flu were perfectly healthy

In an attempt to reassure the public, Sir Liam said: 'The bad thing would be if 100 per cent of the deaths were healthy people. The vast majority of people, even with an underlying condition, will get the flu and recover well.'

The Health Protection Agency said that, to all intents and purposes, England is in the grip of a swine flu epidemic.

Justin McCracken, chief executive of the HPA, said: 'The view is that we are there or thereabouts. On the evidence of people going to their GPs, it is on the border of what we would expect in an epidemic.'



Professor Hugh Pennington, a bacteriologist at Aberdeen University, said: 'I have seen cases myself of people dying from flu who are healthy.



'The fact that younger people are being hit is similar to previous pandemics. Social factors obviously play a part - young people hang around each other more - but the reasons are not known.'



The HPA estimates that 100,000 came down with swine flu last week - compared with 55,000 the previous week. It said the number could even be as high as 140,000. Some 840 are in hospital, including 63 in intensive care.



World's first trials: A woman receives the swine flu vaccine in Adelaide, Australia, where the 1999/2000 strain is believed to have originated

Soaring profits: GlaxoSmithKline has been accused of profiteering over its H1N1 vaccine, which is expected to cost £6 a jab

The National Pandemic Flu Service website went down only three minutes after being launched at 3pm.



A message said: 'The service is currently very busy and cannot deal with your request at this time. Please try again in a little while.'

The site was down for at least two hours, but later appeared to be working normally.

The Tories claimed the problems were because it had been set up too late and that it should have been launched as a global pandemic was declared weeks ago.

Health spokesman Mark Simmonds said: 'People couldn't access the information. They couldn't discover themselves whether they had the appropriate symptoms that would give them the opportunity to get Tamiflu.'

But Sir Liam Donaldson blamed the crash on people's curiosity rather than desperation of those fearing they had the virus.

'We would estimate around the very, very most that there were 20,000 out there when the flu line was switched on who might have had genuine flu.

'Nine million people decided to visit the site because there was such intense media interest in this story and many, many more people were aware of it than if it had moved into use in a routine way.'



Those who suspect they have swine flu log on to the site - www.direct.gov.uk/pandemic flu - and go through an online checklist ticking the boxes that correspond with their symptoms.



If the system diagnoses them with the virus they are given a special 'voucher number' that enables them to go along to their nearest pharmacy or surgery to collect their Tamiflu.



Universities yesterday revealed they could be forced to remain closed in the autumn to limit the spread of swine flu.



Almost two million students will be converging on universities from September when the epidemic is expected to peak.



Departments could be closed, freshers' activities cancelled, or students could even be quarantined.



Meanwhile, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have recommended the suspension of the sharing of the chalice at communion.



They have written to bishops in the Church of England setting out the measures following official advice not to share 'common vessels' for food or drink.



Italy, which has had no deaths from swine flu, yesterday added Britain to a list of travel trouble spots - which also includes Iran and Ethiopia.



Asked why the UK seemed to be particularly badly affected compared with the rest of Europe, Sir Liam said it could be that Britain had better surveillance systems.



But in a sign that the NHS is under strain, companies which provide cover when GPs and practice nurses go off sick have reported a massive surge in demand.



Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: 'Swine flu is getting very busy all over the country. It is going up in all parts of England.



'GPs are at full stretch - both answering phones but also seeing patients in surgery, all at a time when historically people are going on holiday. We are hearing that doctors are cancelling their holidays to do clinical work.'



Some 22,000 died in Britain's last flu epidemic in 1999-2000 - a death rate ten times higher than the average for a normal winter.



The strain, believed to have originated in Australia, crippled the NHS. At the epidemic's peak there were as few as 11 intensive care beds available across the country.



Yesterday, a pregnant Scottish woman critically ill with swine flu was transferred to Sweden for a rare treatment after suffering lung problems.

The procedure involved circulating the patient's blood outside the body and adding oxygen to it artificially. The UK has a unit for such treatment but all five beds are being used.



The number for the National Pandemic Flu Service for England is 0800 1513 100 and the website address www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu

Experts said serious problems in production of a new swine flu vaccine mean many vulnerable people - especially pensioners - may not receive it for months;

Another person died from the virus, bringing the death toll in Britain to 31;

GlaxoSmithKline, which makes flu drugs, was accused of profiteering after announcing profits of £2.1billion - up 10 per cent since the outbreak began;

A survey showed that doctors and nurses have little confidence in the NHS to manage the crisis;

A national swine flu service aiming to speed up access to drugs for thousands of infected people goes live.

Experts said serious problems in production of a new swine flu vaccine mean many vulnerable people - especially pensioners - may not receive it for months;

Another person died from the virus, bringing the death toll in Britain to 31;

GlaxoSmithKline, which makes flu drugs, was accused of profiteering after announcing profits of £2.1billion - up 10 per cent since the outbreak began;

A survey showed that doctors and nurses have little confidence in the NHS to manage the crisis;

A national swine flu service aiming to speed up access to drugs for thousands of infected people goes live.