Birmingham identifies temporary morgues as swine flu cases rocket

Jun 21 2009 by Christina Savvas, Sunday Mercury

“But we expect over the next month to see the number of people affected increase significantly.”

A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: “We have temporary mortuary arrangements in place if required. These plans have been tested and are fit for purpose – and are looked at nationally as good practice.

‘‘We have multi-agency planning arrangements that will enable us to respond to any flu pandemic in Birmingham, and there are similar plans in place that cover the wider West Midlands conurbation too.’’

Last week, it emerged that patients in the West Midlands are no longer being given routine swab tests to test for swine flu.

If they have symptoms and have been in contact with a confirmed case, officials will diagnose them with the disease and offer anti-virus drugs.

The World Health Organisation has said the outbreak is at level six – the highest threat – and said the global figure had increased by more than 10 per cent in two days to 44,287.

So far swine flu has resulted in 180 deaths worldwide. Seven were reported in New York on Tuesday bringing the city’s total to 23.

Tragic mum Jacqui Fleming, 38 and from Glasgow, died in hospital in Paisley last week.

It was the world’s first death from swine flu outside the Americas.

Virus expert Professor Nigel Dimmock, from Warwick University, said: “The flu appears to be mild and the mortality figures are very low – less that one per cent – but we don’t know what is going to happen.

‘‘We just can’t make predictions as we can see from pervious flu pandemics.”

There have been three major influenza pandemics in the past 100 years.

The Spanish flu of 1918 infected more than 500 million people and killed up to 40 million.

In 1957 Asian flu killed two million and a 1986 outbreak led to one million deaths.

Professor Steve Fields, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, and partner at Bellevue Medical Centre, Edgbaston, added: “It looks at the moment that swine flu is a mild illness and the death rate is very low.

‘‘We would expect that with seasonal flu, deaths would occur in elderly patients with underlying health issues such as heart disease or diabetes. But this new strain of influenza is also affecting young adults under the age of 25.

“Most of the cases are mild at the moment.

“The real danger is if it mutates and becomes more severe as we head into the autumn.”