Swine flu children 'shunned' by other pupils

Speaking at a Department of Health briefing on swine flu yesterday, chief medical officer for England Sir Liam Donaldson condemned such behaviour. 

So far, 13 of the 34 confirmed cases of UK swine flu have been among children - the latest of which is the third pupil to be affected at the Dolphin School in Battersea, London. It is one of four schools that have closed on the advice of the Health Protection Agency. A fifth closed of its own volition.

‘We have heard of instances of children who have the infection being shunned by other children - that is quite wrong,’ said Sir Liam. ‘There’s absolutely no need for this, it is a flu, on the whole a mild flu and the children who have had contact have been put on anti-virals. It’s an illness that is resolving very rapidly and then the children are fit, healthy and back to school. So we think it’s really important that there is no complacency with these school outbreaks but also we shouldn’t over-react.

‘This is not some plague that’s descended on the school. It’s flu - it’s largely a self-limiting illness, with the treatments it resolves very rapidly,’ he added. ‘The action that’s been taken has been very precautionary because we don’t know enough about the virus, though it’s been reassuring that they’ve been mild cases.

‘We’ve got the antivirals, we know about the children that have got the infection, we know that they have come back from Mexico or the US, and therefore we are in a position to be highly precationary and treat them, and that’s what we are doing. There’s absolutely no reason for parents to be concerned.’

But Sir Liam rejected suggestions - made by former government chief scientific advisor Sir David King - that the schools should have been left open in order to build up immunity to the virus in the community, saying that the government would continue with the policy until swine flu cases reached such a high level that trying to contain it was no longer worthwhile.

‘We don’t want to find ourselves in a position where a child is possibly admitted to hospital because of complications of flu and we failed to act in a situation where we know about the case and we have the antiviral drugs necessary to treat it,’ he said. ‘As far as children are concerned I’m always very, very cautious. At this stage it’s the right thing to do.’ 

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