Swine flu infects 44 kids at same Birmingham school

Flu outbreak at school
Pupils at Welford Primary in Handsworth, Birmingham began falling ill last week with teachers forced to shut early for half term when three cases were diagnosed.

Lab results now confirmed a further 44 infections at the school, the largest number in a single day since the flu spread began worldwide.

The latest flu-infected cases include 41 children and three adults. The Birmingham school outbreak comes as three other patients from the east of England and London were also found to have the bug yesterday, taking the toll in the UK so far to 184, the Department of Health said.

Panic among school staff and parents
The parents and school staff have become extremely worried and panic stricken after the outbreak.

Teaching assistant Narinder Bansil said: "It happened very suddenly and it seemed to be the infant children that were hit the worst. It's frightening and I'm hoping everybody who has it will be OK. I can't believe it has happened to our school of all places."

Akhtar Khan, 33, parent of an eight-year-old girl, Umme Kulsoom, who goes to the school, said of four to 11-year-old pupils: "Loads of children went home last week with flu-like symptoms. They were dropping like flies. In one class there were only 11 out of 30 children there. Luckily my daughter hasn't had symptoms."

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) yesterday issued a statement regarding the kids’ health saying they are responding well to medicine. A spokesman for HPA said: "This is the largest outbreak we have had in a school.

"We are still investigating the source but I understand the condition of all the new cases are mild at the moment."

Global spread of virus
According to the World Health Organization's fresh estimate, almost 50 countries, including, Mexico, Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, have officially reported 13,000 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.

Mexico has reported 83 human deaths due to infection, while the number of deaths in the United States stands at 12 and at 2 in Canada.

So far, of the total 184 cases of H1N1 virus in Britain, 170 are confirmed in England, 13 in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland.

About swine flu
Swine influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus that regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pigs.

Swine influenza virus strains do not normally infect humans. Its symptoms in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza, including fever, lack of appetite, coughing, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue.

The latest swine flu is a strange strain of the virus (mix of pig, bird and human flu virus) that originated with pigs then jumped to humans and is now spreading through human-to-human contact.

Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed people cannot contract the virus by eating pork. The agency said that people can avoid the infection if they consume properly handled and cooked pork (pig meat) or other products derived from pigs. Cooking pork to internal temperatures of 160°F/70°C kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses.

The infection by the virus can be prevented by washing hands frequently with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanitizers and staying away from big crowds.