Swine flu hits North Wales

Jun 28 2009 By Eryl Crump

Swine flu hits North Wales

Eight-year-old boy from denbighshire is confirmed case

AN eight-year-old boy from Denbighshire is one of four new cases of swine flu in wales, health officials confirmed.
 The boy, who has not been named, is directly linked to a confirmed case in Scotland. 
 A spokeswoman for the National Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS) said the boy’s close contacts have been identified.  He has been offered antiviral medicine and is recovering well. 
 Three other people in the county are “clinically presumed” to have the illness.
 The spokeswoman said they are a 29-year-old man, a 62-year-old female and a 67-year-old man who are contacts of a confirmed case in Scotland.
 The NPHS has up until now been testing everyone who has potentially come into contact with swine flu and who has symptoms.
 But  the spokesman added: "We are moving to the position where swine flu is circulating so freely in the community that we will test very few people as patient's doctors will assume that anyone with flu-like symptoms has contracted swine flu.
 "As part of the transition towards this phase, we are now reporting clinically presumed cases. They are household contacts of confirmed cases of swine flu, who have symptoms of swine flu and are presumed to have swine flu but will not be laboratory tested."
 So far, 189 people have been under investigation in Wales, with 17 confirmed cases, four clinically presumed cases and swine flu ruled out in 144 cases.
 This leaves 24 still under investigation, which the NPHS says all involve people with mild symptoms.