The deaths of apparently healthy individuals in the UK have spread the alarm, is the swine flu virus mutating into a more aggressive one? are we prepared to resist a second wave of the virus? what determines whether someone will survive the virus or no?

Those are someof the questions raised after news of the death of Chloe Buckley, from north-west London, who died on Thursday at St Mary’s hospital in Paddington after contracting the virus in the UK after she was misdiagnosed with tonsillitis.

The truth is that we are more prepared than ever to react to a flu pandemic, labs are faster producing vaccines and our technology allow us to detect and define virus strains faster than ever. If all that is so how come apparently healthy people like  Chloe are succumbing to the virus? The swine-origin H1N1 influenza virus spread continues to rise and there are more factors than the health of the patient that may cause him or her to have a weaker immune system against the virus, in fact the exposure to the virus has a great impact on it’s resistance to the individual’s immune system.

The swine flu virus seems to be particularly more virulent and it appears to penetrate deeper into the lungs of the infected animals  in experiments, at very high doses, this leads to the death of the animal. This should not be a cause of alarm, for instance in 2003 In Britain there were 17 deaths in those aged under 18 caused by the seasonal flu virus, so up until now swine flu virus doesn’t seem to be more deadly than the seasonal virus.

According to what http://www.direct.gov.uk says:

The UK has moved from the ‘containment’ to the ‘treatment’ phase of swine flu as the number of people catching swine flu continues to rise.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham said that cases are doubling every week and if it continues at this rate there could be over 100,000 cases per day by the end of August.

If you think you may have caught the swine flu virus because you have been exposed to someone who has it, or if you have any questions you should follow the following steps, call your local GP and never go to the GPs surgery or hospital in person.

Contact your doctor

Your local GP will be able to tell you if you have swine flu over the phone.

If they say you have swine flu they will give you a voucher number which your Flu Friend (the person caring for you) can use to pick up anti-viral drugs from the local collection centre. This may be a local pharmacy or community centre.

If you are still concerned, you can call:

• NHS Direct on 0845 4647 in England
• NHS 24 on 08454 24 24 24 in Scotland
• NHS Direct Wales on 0845 4647 in Wales
• 0800 0514 142 in Northern Ireland

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