Don’t travel, go to crowded places or get pregnant: Critics question British swine flu advice

Britain’s swine flu advice confuses public

LONDON — Health officials in Britain have issued a torrent of conflicting advice on swine flu, telling people to avoid travel, stay away from crowds and even advising women to delay getting pregnant until the virus subsides.

Other health experts said Monday the advice risked scaring and confusing the public and was a complete overreaction to a virus that so far remains mild.

Still, Britain’s press dug into the topic with relish, publishing bold headlines like “Guards protect swine flu drugs” and “Swine flu alert for pregnant women and babies.”

Since swine flu was declared a pandemic, or global outbreak, by the World Health Organization in June, Britain’s response has swung between early claims that the virus was not spreading widely to recent predictions there could be 100,000 new cases a day by the end of August.

Britain’s Department of Health recommended Sunday that people with flu-like symptoms delay their holidays and other travelers take medicine with them and avoid public places if they get sick.

But since people with swine flu often are contagious before they even have symptoms, it was not clear that advice would slow the virus’ spread.

“You shouldn’t rearrange your life around the virus at this point,” said Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the World Health Organization. Most people who get swine flu, also known as H1N1, only experience mild symptoms and don’t need any treatment to get better.

Even now, during the summer vacation period, WHO does not recommend any travel-related measures to prevent the spread of swine flu, which it has described as “unstoppable.”

In its most controversial advice, Britain’s Department of Health recommended that “it may be sensible for those trying for children to consider delaying conception whilst the pandemic is going on.”

But the Royal College of General Practitioners called that advice “scaremongering” and said it was a completely disproportionate response since pandemics typically last for several years.

“It adds to the sense of hysteria and panic that seems to be engulfing the nation,” the group’s head, Dr. Steve Field, was quoted as saying in The Observer.

Pregnant women are at higher risk of complications from swine flu, since pregnancy weakens women’s immune systems. The health office advised them to avoid crowded places if possible — more advice that some experts wondered about.

“We have very little or no evidence that being in crowds actually puts you at increased risk,” said John Edmunds, a professor of infectious disease modeling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Edmunds said it was possible closer contact was needed to catch the virus.

Britain’s Health Secretary Andy Burnham denied that the government’s response to the outbreak had been confusing and said the health service had dealt “fantastically well” with the virus, which has hit Britain harder than any other European country.

But Britain’s opposition Liberal Democrats say infighting has delayed the launch of a national swine flu hot line, which is still not operating.

In recent weeks, public fears have been heightened by estimates issued by British health officials, who predicted that 100,000 people might get swine flu every day by the end of August, and that 75,000 people might die in the outbreak.

“About the only thing we know about these numbers is that they will be wrong,” Edmunds said, adding it was too early in the outbreak to accurately predict how many people might fall sick or die.

Hartl said WHO wasn’t surprised by the wide-ranging advice issued in response to the swine flu pandemic.

“There’s always going to be a pendulum swing of reactions. That’s just part of human nature,” he said.

He added while the virus remains mild, it was important to stay vigilant.

“Viruses can mutate and can become more pathogenic,” he said. “If this gets more serious, then all bets are off.”