Community Action Features

The first cases of swine flu in North Staffordshire were confirmed in June 2009, after 2 local men contracted the disease whilst on a stag week in Las Vegas.

The World Health Organization declared a pandemic in June 2009 following a sharp increase in the number of cases in Australia.

For more information on the spread of the disease, please see the BBC health pages:-

Contagious

Swine flu - so called because pigs are hit by regular outbreaks - is a contagious virus. Sufferers feel like they have the common flu and it normally only hits people who have been in contact with infected animals.

Scientists, at this stage don't know why it's spreading to people outside the pig industry. So how worried should we be? What would close a school? See our report below:-

Symptoms

The typical symptoms are also like other 'flus. It spreads in the same way as other 'flus - people cough and sneeze. The virus carries in the air and can land on all manner of surfaces, and in that way people come into contact with it and it can spread from person to person.

The symptoms include a high temperature, fatigue, lack of appetite and coughing, often accompanied by a sore throat. You might also see other symptoms like vomiting and diarrhoea.

Yes, it can be dangerous.

The good news is that some antiviral drugs currently available - the best known of them is called Tamiflu - seem to be combating this current swine 'flu strain.

In an initiative announced on July 23rd, the government opened specific Swine Flu Advice services, on a telephone hotline number and a website.
The NHS in Stoke on Trent also announced their network of Tamiflu distribution centres: see the link below for a list of the sites (scroll down the linked page to find the sites at the bottom of the page).
Also, for a better idea of what the disease is, and how best you can prevent infection, see the BBC Health webpage by clicking on the second link below:-

Spread

About a hundred people in Mexico have died with other cases in several American states, Canada and New Zealand. The first European patient was confirmed in Spain and cases of the disease in Europe have been mild.

Like other 'flu viruses it can change or mutate because of a mix of different animal and human versions of the disease and that makes it difficult to develop vaccines. If that happens, and people start to contract it easily, it can spread around the globe and affect millions of people. Then it would be classified as a pandemic.

Even a few isolated cases of people returning from an affected area wouldn't necessarily lead to an outbreak. What's clear is that the health authorities here - as elsewhere - are monitoring the situation very closely so as to protect the public as best they can.
See the BBC News report about the global implications below:-