A New Swine Flu Mutation - Far More Deadly(2)

The UK is stockpiling vaccine ready for the winter pandemic and although it appears to have died down governments throughout the world are being warned not to get complacent as a major winter pandemic is sure. The US firm Baxter are supplying the vaccine to the UK and will be available for distribution around October. The first people to get it will be


"at risk groups" such as heart patients,diabetics,asthmatics as well as pregnant women, health workers and somebody with any underlying health problem.



The current H1N1 strain of the flu virus is a mixture of human,as well as pig and bird genes and although very contagious has so far proved to be no more risky than normal seasonal flu. If however it mutates with the H5N1 virus ( commonly known as bird flu or avian flu) it will certainly become more powerful although the avian flu is harder to pass among humans.
Of the European countries the UK is the hardest hit so far with the swine flu virus and at the time of writing 66 people have died of the virus in Britain.