Britian has a swine flu epidemic

Yesterday there were more than 7,400 confirmed cases of swine flu in the UK. If the number of cases continues to grow at the current pace, the UK could have 100,000 new cases every day by the end of August.

So far, most swine flu patients have suffered only mild symptoms. However, they are still be urged to stay away from GP surgeries or hospitals if they suspect they have the flu.

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Under the Government's pandemic action plan, there are three levels of alert for a serious flu outbreak. Earlier this week the Health Secretary announced the UK would now enter the third, most serious, phase.

The first stage is Containment, which Britain entered when the first cases, a honeymoon couple, were confirmed in Scotland on April 27.

The priority is to stop the disease spreading as much as possible. Everyone with suspected swine flu has their diagnosis confirmed by a lab report, and is given the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. All recent contacts of infected people are traced and also given Tamiflu. Schools are closed if teachers or pupils contract the disease.

The second stage is Outbreak Management, which the country entered on June 25.

Action against swine flu was stepped up in three 'hot spot' areas - London, Glasgow and the West Midlands - where it was no longer possible to contain its spread.

In the hot spots, suspected cases were no longer sent for lab testing, with GPs doing the diagnosis, and people with swine flu got Tamiflu, but contacts did not as a matter of course. Schools in the hotspots were no longer automatically closed.

The third stage, which the whole country has now entered, is called Treatment.

GPs will be given the discretion to hold back Tamiflu to those with minor symptoms - and in a few weeks it may be rationed to at-risk groups. Vaccines will begin to be delivered once the first batches arrive in August.

And the weirdest thing... this flu could have been caused by a leak from a lab. Really nice.

Is China hiding a new epidemic?

Will we get to hear the truth before it affects all of us?:

HONG KONG, May 7 — A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said Monday that the Chinese government was providing little information about it or the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused death and illness in pets in the United States.

The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potentially global implications.

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Because pigs can catch many of the same diseases as people, including bird flu, the W.H.O. and F.A.O. maintain global networks to track and investigate unexplained patterns of pig deaths.

Hong Kong television and newspapers were full of lurid accounts on Monday of pigs staggering around with blood pouring from their bodies in Gaoyao and neighboring Yunfu, both in Guangdong Province. The Apple Daily newspaper said that up to 80 percent of the pigs had died in the area, that peasants were engaged in panic selling of ailing animals at deep discounts and that pig carcasses were floating down a river.

The disease reportedly started killing pigs after Chinese New Year celebrations in February, but is now spreading. The state-controlled news media in China have had a few reports on the wheat gluten problem and almost nothing on the pig deaths.