Cancer wards closed in swine f lu outbreak

VULNERABLE cancer patients have been infected with swine flu in a major hospital outbreak that forced the closure of three wards yesterday.

Seventeen people have been infected, including 14 being treated for cancer and a child.

Leicester Royal Infirmary shut three of its wards yesterday over the outbreak, which has also hit nearby Glenfield Hospital, where another three patients, a child and two adults, are being treated for the virus.

All those infected have the H1N1 strain of influenza, better known as swine flu, and have been isolated.

Dr Philip Monk, consultant in communicable disease control with Public Health England, said the number of swine flu cases around the country had been increasing for three weeks.

He added: ‘It is far too early to tell how things will go.’

PHE said 40 flu outbreaks were reported in the week to February 7. Twenty-two were in schools, 16 affected care homes and two others were in hospitals.

Leicester Royal Infirmary initially thought just three cancer patients on the haematology ward were infected. They only discovered the full extent of the outbreak after carrying out tests.

Dr Monk said: ‘Because these patients have very little immunity, it was decided to swab all patients and 14 were confirmed as positive.’ However, far fewer people are expected to be infected this year than during the major outbreak in 2009 because more people have built up an immunity to the illness.

The swine flu pandemic in 2009 and 2010 spread rapidly around the world from Mexico, killing at least 18,000 people globally.

The number of British cases peaked at 11,000 in July 2009, resulting in 360 deaths.

Dr Monk urged people to make sure they had a flu jab.

‘This year’s flu vaccination is a good match for H1N1, and is the best way of stopping it from spreading’, he said.

‘People can be quite poorly if they get this, but if they have had it they won’t get it again because they have built up an immunity.’