01/05/2009

Se espera en breve la confirmación de la primera trasmisión persona-persona de influenza porcina en el Reino Unido

News
Fuente: O’Dowd, A., 2009. Confirmation of first person to person transmission of swine flu in UK expected soon. BMJ, 338(may01_1), b1838.
doi:10.1136/bmj.b1838

Confirmation of first person to person transmission of swine flu in UK expected soon
Adrian O’Dowd
London 1 May 2009
The first human to human transmission of swine influenza in the United Kingdom is expected to be confirmed today, as the number of confirmed cases has risen to eight.
Worldwide, there are now 331 confirmed cases of influenza A (H1N1) and 10 confirmed deaths in Mexico and the US, although Mexican health officials believe it may have caused 168 deaths in their country. The World Health Organization says that the flu has been detected in 11 different countries.
The Scottish government will reveal today whether or not a honeymoon couple who returned from Mexico and were confirmed to have the disease has passed it on to a friend of theirs: the first example of someone in the UK who has not been to Mexico, the source of infection, catching the disease.
The Scottish chief medical officer Harry Burns said that it was “probably more likely, than less likely” that the case of the man in the Forth Valley area would turn out to be confirmed.
The Scottish health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said, “This individual had continued to feel unwell and a retest has rendered a positive for influenza A [of which swine flu is a strain].
“That person now must be treated as a probable, and that sample is now being further analysed, which will allow us to confirm whether it is a positive for swine flu. If this case was confirmed, then it would be the first case we have of onward transmission from one of our Mexico returning cases.”
Throughout the UK, there are 230 cases, which are currently being tested to see if these people also have the disease.
Television advertisements have already started to be screened in the United Kingdom warning about the flu and how to prevent it spreading, and an information booklet will be sent out next Tuesday to all households in the country.
Meanwhile, new guidance, Preparations for Pandemic Influenza, has been rushed out by the Royal College of Physicians to help frontline staff manage during a pandemic influenza outbreak.
The guidance has been in preparation for a few months and is not fully proof read, but the college has decided to issue it now because of the circumstances.
It is designed to show how specialties can adjust their patterns of work to cope during a pandemic.
The college’s president, Ian Gilmore, said that he had decided to make the information available to fellows and members of the college ahead of schedule.
Aimed at acute hospital and primary care trusts as well as medical staff, including consultants working in hospital specialties, the guidance does not give detailed operational instructions for responding to a flu pandemic but helps hospitals coordinate care during a difficult period.
It proposes that consultants use a blue and yellow card system to identify patients who may or may not need to be seen urgently as a way of organising outpatient referrals in a pandemic.
The Department of Health has also today published guidance for NHS organisations on how to manage demand and capacity in the face of a flu pandemic.