16 November 2009
Jersey’s Health Department has declared a swine flu outbreak after a sharp increase in cases in the past week, particularly among children.
There were 119 cases last week (up to 15 November) compared with 34 cases the previous week. 50% of swabs taken for swine flu are now being confirmed as positive and 80% of these are children.
Consultant in Communicable Diseases, Dr Ivan Muscat, will be leading the control of the outbreak. He said: “Swine flu cases are now higher than the number of seasonal flu cases we would expect to see at this time of the year. We’re also seeing clusters in schools around the Island.
“As a result, we will be moving to a heightened phase of containment during the next few weeks. By Wednesday (18 November), all school and nursery children will have been offered the vaccine. As it takes 14 days for immunity to develop, we have to do all we can to contain the virus until the vaccine takes effect.
“This means that instead of waiting for lab results as we have been doing until now, we will assume that everyone who has a clinical diagnosis of swine flu has the virus and as a result, they and their contacts will be offered Tamiflu. To slow the spread of swine flu in schools, we will be offering Tamiflu more widely to school contacts.”
These increased measures are being introduced because schools are a catalyst for outbreaks. Last week, between 80% and 90% of nursery and primary school children had the swine flu vaccine. If the take up is similar among secondary school children, it’s hoped these additional measures will only be in place for the next 2 to 3 weeks.
As part of the increased measures to contain swine flu, a free forehead thermometer is being sent to every home in Jersey from tomorrow (17 November). Householders will receive an envelope in the post with the thermometer, a letter (in English, Polish and Portuguese) explaining how it works and a leaflet with information about looking after children with flu symptoms. The thermometers are reusable and can be used by all the family.
Dr Muscat said: “With numbers increasing on a daily basis now, it’s important that people are able to check their temperature as a fever of 38ºC or more is a key symptom of swine flu. People should still contact their doctor for treatment or to be signed off from work.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the probation service and the prisoners at La Moye for packing all the envelopes for us. I’m also very grateful to Jersey Post for pulling out all the stops to get this delivered to households as soon as possible. This has been a real community effort and we would not have been able to do this so quickly without all their help.”
People are being urged to continue following the “catch it, bin it, kill it” message by practising good hygiene such as hand washing regularly and using tissues.
gov.je