London on the verge of swine flu epidemic as two more die

London has become the area most badly hit by the virus
12 April 2012

Swine flu in London is approaching epidemic levels, new figures show today.

The capital has become the area most badly hit by the virus, with thousands of people suffering from flu symptoms. The news comes as two more people were today confirmed to have died after contracting swine flu — bringing the number of deaths in the capital to five.

NHS London said a young child died at St Thomas' Hospital on Tuesday and a 66-year-old man from Essex died at Barts yesterday. Both are believed to have been suffering from underlying health problems.

New figures from the Department of Health show 335 people are currently in hospital with swine flu, including 43 in intensive care, across the UK.

Sir Liam Donaldson, the Government's Chief Medical Officer, said there may be many more people suffering from swine flu who treat themselves at home and don't report to their GP.

Latest figures show 180 people in every 100,000 went to their GP with flu-like symptoms in London last week. When that number reaches 200 per 100,000, London will have reached epidemic levels. In England as a whole, 51.9 people in every 100,000 went to their GP with flu-like symptoms.

Sir Liam added that about 27,000 people across the country went to their GP complaining of flu last week.

The DoH said young people aged between five and 14 are the most badly affected. There have been 14 deaths in the UK so far, and all had underlying health problems.

There will be no inquests into the deaths of two Londoners, a nine-year-old girl and 19-year-old man, who died after contracting swine flu. Both had existing health problems.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in