TWELVE NEW cases of swine flu were confirmed in the State yesterday, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned the spread of the virus was now “unstoppable”.
None of the new cases, which bring to 63 the total number of cases of influenza A (H1N1) reported here to date, were connected with previously confirmed cases. As a result, the number of so called “in-country transmissions” of the virus remains at four.
Five more cases were also confirmed in Northern Ireland, bringing the total there to 43.
And a day after the UK announced it could no longer attempt to contain the spread of the virus, it recorded its fourth death from swine flu, in a 19-year-old man in London who had underlying health problems.
Britain’s health secretary, Andy Burnham, said on Thursday that cases were doubling every week and “on this trend we could see over 100,000 cases per day by the end of August”.
The UK is no longer trying to trace contacts of those who test positive, or to offer contacts antivirals such as Tamiflu, because the virus is spreading so rapidly.
Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer at the Department of Health, said it was more likely the Republic will now see a lot more cases of swine flu as a result of the UK’s change of strategy. “When you consider the extent of travel between here and the UK, the very shift in policy in the UK is likely to increase the number of imported cases into this country,” he said.
But he stressed that efforts were still being made to contain the virus here, given that we still don’t have sustained community transmission. This strategy “will slow it down, to give us time to get prepared, to allow our stocks of . . . medicines, equipment, etc to build up, and then hopefully to have access to vaccine once it’s developed”, he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
But he warned that Ireland could be in the same position as the UK in a number of weeks. However, he said Ireland was well prepared relative to other European countries, with high stocks of antivirals and an arrangement to ensure people will have access to up to 7.7 million doses of vaccine once its production begins.
Dr Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO, said these are still early days for the 2009 influenza pandemic. “As we see today, with well over 100 countries reporting cases, once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges, its further international spread is unstoppable,” she said.
She stressed that the overwhelming majority of patients who contract the virus experience mild symptoms and make a full recovery within a week, often in the absence of any medical treatment. “Most cases of severe and fatal infection continue to occur in people with underlying medical conditions . . . but there are some exceptions that must be the focus of particular concern. For reasons that are poorly understood, some deaths are occurring in perfectly healthy young people,” she added.
Separately yesterday, a summer camp for students at Roxboro national school in Roscommon was put off until next week. The move followed confirmation on Wednesday that a child in the school had contracted the virus. She is recovering well at home. An American woman being treated for swine flu at Sligo General Hospital is also recovering.
Also yesterday, the third case of swine flu showing resistance to Tamiflu was reported in Hong Kong. Only two other cases of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 have been reported, in Denmark and Japan.