Weekly swine flu update

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety has today published the weekly flu bulletin.

It was announced last week that the UK was moving to a treatment phase in relation to managing the swine flu pandemic. This means that our focus is on treating those people who actually have swine flu. In addition, the routine testing of suspected cases and the tracing of close contacts of a symptomatic patient will be discontinued.

The level of flu in the community is therefore being monitored using a range of surveillance mechanisms through GP practices, Out of Hours centres and hospital surveillance systems. This enables us to accurately predict flu levels, monitor new and emerging viruses and identify trends in activity.

The figures are as at the week ending 3 July 2009 and give a good representation of the level of flu activity across Northern Ireland.

Weekly Flu Bulletin

The bulletin includes data for the week until Friday 3 July 2009 and the 16 cases quoted below are part of the 45 cases already confirmed and notified to the press via the Department’s daily update system which ended on Monday 6 July 2009.

Key points from the bulletin are as follows:

• There is evidence of a recent rise in number of consultations for flu and flu-like illnesses both from GPs and Out of Hours centres. This is the second consecutive week the consultation rate has risen. The GP consultation rate is therefore higher than expected for this time of the year.
• This rise may be influenced by the increased awareness of the public of swine flu and its symptoms.
• There have been 16 detections of swine flu in the week until Friday 3 July 2009.
• There have been no deaths related to swine flu.

The full bulletin is available on the DHSSPS website and nidirect.

Notes to Editors:

1. The Northern Ireland swine flu helpline number 0800 0514 142 is a freephone helpline for those who want more information about swine flu.

2. The UK-wide flu information line on 0800 1 513 513 provides regularly updated advice on swine flu. This is also a freephone number.

3. Further information about swine flu can be found at www.dhsspsni.gov.uk or www.nidirect.gov.uk.

4. Media enquiries to the DHSSPS Press Office on 028 9052 0579. Out of office hours contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 076 9971 5440