Swine Flu Pedia

A nursery school in Greenock, near Glasgow, has been closed for a week after a three-year-old emerged as another probable case of swine flu.

About 100 children at the Ladybird nursery, including 20 under-twos, have been asked to stay at home for a week. Children and staff in close contact with the suspected case will be treated with antiviral drugs.

The news came barely 12 hours after more than 200 children at Ravenscraig primary school and an after-school club in Greenock were told to stay home for seven days because a five-year-old in the town was suspected of contracting the virus.

The cluster of swine flu cases in the coastal town on the Clyde appears to be connected to a 19-year-old man who was admitted to hospital on Saturday with a chest infection.

The 45-year-old mother of the five-year-old boy from Ravenscraig primary, who is also linked to the teenager, , is also thought to have swine flu.

Neither she nor her son have yet had been confirmed as having swine flu, but both tested positive for the influenza A group of viruses, which includes the H1N1 swine flu type, and have been in close contact with the 19-year-old.

All 23 children and teaching staff in the five-year-old’s class at Ravenscraig primary school will be given antiviral drugs, as will 18 children aged between five and 12 at his after-school club. Those children attend a number of schools in the town.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish health secretary, said the school closures were a precautionary step to prevent the virus spreading.

The series of cases that broke out when the virus spread at Alleyn’s school in north London earlier this month showed health authorities that early action was essential to prevent a local outbreak.

Source from Guardian