uneasy, restless feeling

As usual when there's a crisis in the UK politicians start blaming each other and with the huge increase in the number of people admitted the hospital suffering from swine flu over the last week the Shadow Health Secretary John Healey came out saying the Health Minister Andrew Lansley should have prepared the country better.

The UK Department of Health statistics show that number of critical care beds being taken up by swine flu patients is causing a number of NHS trusts to actually cancel scheduled operations to make sure that there are enough beds available if the problem gets worse. It is thought to be the worst flu outbreak for the last twenty years.

There are also concerns that this influenza pandemic in the UK could lead to shortages of the influenza medications Tamiflu and Relenza despite significant government's stock piles.

Usually it is the elderly who get admitted to hospital the most when an influenza pandemic breaks out however government figures show that there is a definite shift to younger hospital admissions which is the hallmark of the H1N1 swine flu virus. Health experts have said that while a number of different influenza viruses are circulating the swine flu is definitely the dominant virus at the moment.

Professor John Oxford who is considered to be the UK's leading expert on viruses said that he wished he could calm fears but he said he had an "uneasy, restless feeling" about the outbreak. He described swine flu as being the "biggest virus on the block" and said that there were "plenty of people still to infect".

For those of you think flu is harmless don't forget that this year it has killed around 25 people and that not all of them were considered to be individuals at risk.

One 25 year old pregnant mother, Ms. Fallon Devaney is it to be lucky to be alive after contracting the swine flu and ending up in intensive care at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham. Pregnant women should be especially careful to take precautions such as washing their hands and staying away from anyone with flu-like symptoms.