Swine flu ‘likely’ to increase on campus this autumn

Swine flu cases on campus are “likely” to increase this autumn, according to a spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Sami Wannell, Welfare Officer for the Students’ Union, also expects to see “a resurgence around Freshers. Just like there is every year with Freshers’ Flu.”

Both the University and the Union have contingency plans in place to deal with an outbreak of the virus.

Peter Dunn, Press Officer for the University, said the University contingency plans will be determined by the changing advice of the HPA.

Dunn said, “The Deputy Registrar’s office has consulted extensively with all service departments to examine how each would, could or should react depending on what we face – there is no specific tipping point based on some simplistic count of numbers of people with swine flu.”

“The HPA advice we will be following in the implementation of our plans is, and will be, specific advice for this institution not just general national guidance.”

He refused to elaborate on any further details. “Any decisions we do take will also have to blend with how national government advice evolves as circumstances change.”

The spokeswoman for the HPA, said, “We have a good relationship with Warwick University. If there were swine flu cases at the University we would be in constant contact [with University officials].”

She added, “It is unlikely our advice to the University will change, unless the disease evolves.”

The Union also has detailed contingency plans set up, allowing it to maintain operations if staff were to fall ill.

Wannell commented, “Say all our chefs went down, we have a plan in place to deal with that…We have outside contracts set up.” In such a circumstance, the Union would close all but one food outlet, the Dirty Duck.

But Wannell stressed that closures were highly unlikely. “For our main venue [the Copper Rooms] to be shut down, we’d have to have pretty much all our staff come down [with swine flu].”

Wannell thinks that most of the problems with swine flu stem from fear rather than the threat from the virus itself, “I don’t really think it’s anything to worry about. I think it will probably be okay.”

Both the Union and University advise both staff and students to remain at home if they feel unwell and will continue to monitor the situation. Information about symptoms is available on the University website.

Swine flu is a respiratory illness of the H1N1 flu strain. Since the first cases in Mexico at the end of April, swine flu has spread rapidly around the world. As of the 1st of October there have been 4,334 total deaths reported worldwide, with 72 in the UK.

In the UK, the rate of swine flu eased off over the summer. However, there was a 50 per cent increase in new cases of swine flu in England last week, and an estimated 14,000 new cases, compared with 9,000 the week before. Anti-viral collection numbers in England increased most in the 18-24 age group from 8,796 to 12,055.