Swine flu cases continue to rise

The number of new cases of swine flu in England has almost doubled over the last seven days to 9,000, official figures show...

That compares with 5,000 the previous week, and 3,000 before that. In Scotland, the new weekly figures showed a slight increase from 6,180 to 7,034.

While the majority of cases continue to be mild, the total number of swine flu-related deaths in the UK rose to 82.

The levels of swine flu are much lower in Wales and Northern Ireland.

The figures are on the increase but they are still some way short of what they were in July when England alone was seeing more than 100,000 cases a week.

And, to put it into context, the levels being reported are below the amount of seasonal flu that could be expected during a bad winter.

Nonetheless, Sir Liam Donaldson, the government's chief medical officer, said he would have hoped to have seen no rises to buy more time to roll out the vaccine programme.

The government is still awaiting approval from regulators for the two types of vaccines it has bought.

Once that happens - and it is expected soon - GPs will start immunising the priority groups, which include people with health conditions and pregnant women.

Sir Liam said children and young people were responsible for much of the rising number of new infections.

He said he had been alerted to flu outbreaks in 66 schools although the true number was likely to be much higher.

"Everything suggests we are seeing the start of the second peak, but we just don't know how big that will be."

Source: BBC News Online, 24th September 2009