100,000 New Swine Flu Cases

[efq]

One hundred thousand new cases of swine flu have been recorded in the last seven days.


http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2009/Jul/Week4/15345044.jpg The new pandemic flu service is open


The figure for England is double the total of the previous week.
Some 840 people are described as being "seriously ill" in hospital with the illness - and 63 people are being treated in intensive care.
The death toll in the UK stands at 31, but that is likely to climb when the Department of Health releases its weekly update online later.
The shocking new figures come as the National Pandemic Flu Service opened across England, allowing people who think they have the H1N1 virus to bypass the NHS to obtain antiviral drugs.
The new phone hotline and website service use a checklist to diagnose cases and has been designed to relieve the pressure on the health service.


Visitors to the Government website (http://www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu) are asked fill in a detailed questionnaire before being given a positive or negative swine flu diagnosis.
Call centre staff manning the telephone hotline - 0800 1513 100 - will use the same algorithm. They are expecting to field up to 200,000 queries a day.
If a caller is confirmed to have swine flu they will be given an authorisation number, which their designated "flu friend" can use to pick up antiviral drugs from the local collection point.
Over 2,000 staff have been recruited and given six-hour long training sessions before they start work. They are not required to have any previous medical experience.
Some critics claim the "worried well" will abuse the DIY diagnosis to apply for medication unnecessarily.
Others fear swine flu symptoms could mask other serious illnesses, like meningitis.
Seventeen-year-old Gemma Drury, from Chesterfield, was diagnosed with the H1N1 virus (http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Meningitis-Sufferer-Misdiagnosed-As-Swine-Flu-Gemma-Drury-Forced-To-Lie-To-Emergency-Services/Article/200907415344455?lpos=UK_News_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15344455_Meningitis_Sufferer_Misdiagno sed_As_Swine_Flu%3A_Gemma_Drury_Forced_To_Lie_To_E mergency_Services) by two separate doctors.
She was in fact suffering from meningitis and is now recovering in hospital.
Her father Kevin told Sky News: "If two doctors could get it wrong with Gemma, what hope would someone on the end of the phone with no medical training have?
"It's not the right way to make a diagnosis."
The Department of Health insists the service is simply a way for people to get access to Tamiflu and other antiviral drugs quickly.
Anyone displaying unusual symptoms will still be advised to contact a medical professional.
God, its starting to pick up when they said it would...


Edit: After looking at the amount in each country, this would mean UK is the most affected country worldwide? More than America...

[e5]

i hope this means we're not going back to school in september.

[efq]

and we haven't even reached autumn O.O

[cocaine]

half my year at school had it. and half my year at school have recovered from it.

[efq]

you will recover (well 65000 predicted wont but they will be the people who have underlying health problems in hospital) but they cant put anyone in a position if it results in more spreading because they can't have doctors/nhs staff going down like flies

[Sammeth.]

To be honest, I bet the first few hundred to get it are really annoyed that their fad has gone mainstream. I know I would be.

[e5]

They won't be all confirmed cases, just those that rang up or posted online tbh.

[AlexOC]

We're all gonna get it, just lets hope it dies down after a bit.

[efq]

We're all gonna get it, just lets hope it dies down after a bit.
It's unstoppable, I don't know much but if it's unstoppable then its here to stay for ever like the cold, flu etc?

[Catchy]

Normal flu is worse apparently.. And no they wont close schools, kids will still be out anyway!

[efq]

Normal flu is worse apparently.. And no they wont close schools, kids will still be out anyway!
They won't have thousands of kids packed into little rooms though will they?
My County are already on the verge of closing them until November.

Normal flu isn't affecting the pregnant as much as Swine Flu

[cocaine]

They won't have thousands of kids packed into little rooms though will they?
My County are already on the verge of closing them until November.

Normal flu isn't affecting the pregnant as much as Swine Flu

what about offices and workplaces? public places such as town centres, fitness centres, london underground? are they going to shut them down too? :rolleyes:

[GommeInc]

Keeping schools closed will just make it spread :/ What's better, keeping fireants locked away or letting them run riot spreading like wild fire? Keeping schools closed won't solve anything, children will be out and about running around anywhere, while at least at school they're safer and locked away, and anyone sick can be sent home and kept home :/ It'll just cause more problems as far as I can see it at least :/

[Melsia]

My friend was diagnosed with it the other day, way more people that I know have started to get it over the past week or so, so I can believe these figures.

[efq]

Keeping schools closed will just make it spread :/ What's better, keeping fireants locked away or letting them run riot spreading like wild fire? Keeping schools closed won't solve anything, children will be out and about running around anywhere, while at least at school they're safer and locked away, and anyone sick can be sent home and kept home :/ It'll just cause more problems as far as I can see it at least :/
First of all, those 'Fireants' are only locked away for 6 hours of the day and get 2 hours of 'out and about running anywhere' at breaks and before/after school.

No cause in school if one person has it, it only takes a sneeze to spread it to A LOT of people. How many kids hands touch them tables, equitment etc.

In the city centres etc is your choice, School isn't an option. They can open schools and have the risk of teachers becoming sick, no lessons can be taught, one child getting it, then having half or more the school sick. Same for businesses.

[LoveToStack]

Is it not less likely that you'd catch it in open air than in an enclosed space though?

[efq]

Is it not less likely that you'd catch it in open air than in an enclosed space though?
Well in an enclosed airspace the virus is always around you, it won't be escaping anytime soon where as in an open air space it is harder to catch it.

You see the adverts on the TV about flu, notice its in a lift. A space space where it can be easily picked up, same as an classroom. Same on the bus advert.

[Neil]

Not much surprised the UK is so easily effected, if you think about it it's very much easy to understand since so many people in England commute to London, people in London could go out other places, where in America you don't see so many people commuting from small states to the large ones so much, which means it'd spread a lot slower.

[GommeInc]

First of all, those 'Fireants' are only locked away for 6 hours of the day and get 2 hours of 'out and about running anywhere' at breaks and before/after school.

No cause in school if one person has it, it only takes a sneeze to spread it to A LOT of people. How many kids hands touch them tables, equitment etc.

In the city centres etc is your choice, School isn't an option. They can open schools and have the risk of teachers becoming sick, no lessons can be taught, one child getting it, then having half or more the school sick. Same for businesses.
Tvm for falling into my trap - so you agree that school is a better option, because in town centres where logically more people are around, is more of a hazard? At least when they're locked away in school and only leave to go home, the virus stays within a few areas, while in the middle of town centres that virus could spread to one person, who will go to so many locations in an hour that the virus would of spread far quicker, and with the aid of naturally un-immune children, that virus could spread even more. Besides, neither are valid options to take to stop the spread of the virus, school is a safer option where they are kept under lock and key and under constant supervision - parents won't be able to look after them when they are at work and the ill children who won't know they have it it will freely walk around the town spreading it (not that I care as it seems to be revolving around hype :/)

So, my point - fireants do more damage to themselves and only slight damage to the world around them. Either way, taking them out of school is a waste of time and won't save them from getting or not getting the virus. Why waste money putting them into education when they won't be having any of it? Stupid idea, no wonder local councils are considered stupid, the lot of 'em should be shot *glares at local borough council who doesn't know the value of money >.>*

[efq]

Tvm for falling into my trap - so you agree that school is a better option, because in town centres where logically more people are around, is more of a hazard? At least when they're locked away in school and only leave to go home, the virus stays within a few areas, while in the middle of town centres that virus could spread to one person, who will go to so many locations in an hour that the virus would of spread far quicker, and with the aid of naturally un-immune children, that virus could spread even more. Besides, neither are valid options to take to stop the spread of the virus, school is a safer option where they are kept under lock and key and under constant supervision - parents won't be able to look after them when they are at work and the ill children who won't know they have it it will freely walk around the town spreading it (not that I care as it seems to be revolving around hype :/)

So, my point - fireants do more damage to themselves and only slight damage to the world around them. Either way, taking them out of school is a waste of time and won't save them from getting or not getting the virus. Why waste money putting them into education when they won't be having any of it? Stupid idea, no wonder local councils are considered stupid, the lot of 'em should be shot *glares at local borough council who doesn't know the value of money >.>*
Erm the school you know obv are hw geeks cause I don't know many people who go home from school and stay in...

[GommeInc]

Again you don't seem to proving any sort of point? If they go out, they're still spreading the flu :/ What exactly is the point of closing schools down? It can't be to stop the spread of the flu, that's aload of rubbish. That's like tipping over a container of water and hoping it doesn't spread all over the floor -,-

[Dan2nd]

I saw someone onf GMTV saying that that figure is NOT a prediction and is only part of a model which was created to prepare for the worse case scenario...

I also made the effort to look this up on Google and found the following from the Times


The model says that the NHS should prepare for up to 12 per cent of the workforce to be off sick. However, it emphasises that its figures are not a prediction but based on a “reasonable worst-case scenario for planning purposes”. It adds that the spread of the virus might slow during the summer holidays, peaking in October after children go back to school.

[le harry]

I was 'diagnosed' with it last week. Felt like a normal ****** flu but just lasted for longer. Half our school have it aswell. It's nothing major now. Nearly everybody is going to catch it.

[efq]

I was 'diagnosed' with it last week. Felt like a normal ****** flu but just lasted for longer. Half our school have it aswell. It's nothing major now. Nearly everybody is going to catch it.
Yeah but still some innocent people will die from it. If it spreads as fast as it did last week the UK is going to be a sick, businesses will be losing money from sick staff.

[Sammeth.]

Yeah but still some innocent people will die from it. If it spreads as fast as it did last week the UK is going to be a sick, businesses will be losing money from sick staff.
"Innocent" people, as if Swine Flu is some sort of terrorist attack.

[efq]

"Innocent" people, as if Swine Flu is some sort of terrorist attack.
Lol, it could of been Bin Laden who put together the strains and infected someone and look hows he's doing lol?

Yeah, mis-use of 'innocent' sorry.