Swine Flu: Health Secretary Urges Calm

July14,2009 The Health Secretary has moved to reassure parents after the death of a six-year-old girl who contracted swine flu.

The death of Chloe Buckley from west London was a "tragedy" but "lots of children" had suffered from swine flu and had made a full recovery, Andy Burnham told Sky News.

Britain was at the "front of the queue" for supplies of vaccine and would start to receive the first from next month, Mr Burnham said.

Chloe died on Thursday - a day after she had complained of a sore throat and was diagnosed with tonsillitis.

Further tests are due to be carried out to see if she had any underlying health conditions.

Chloe was a pupil at St Catherine's School in West Drayton. Last night, parents attended a meeting at the school, where staff and council officials attempted to reassure those worried about their children's health.

Grandmother Daphne May, 62, revealed there had been an air of panic at the meeting.
She said: "People are very worried and upset. We should have been told something sooner."

She added: "Chloe was a beautiful girl, very polite, very petite, but we had heard that she had heart problems."


Bedfordshire GP Dr Michael Day died on Saturday in the Luton and Dunstable Hospital; a subsequent swab test revealed he had swine flu although it is not yet known if this was the cause of his death.

The first British patient without underlying health problems died on Friday after contracting swine flu. The patient, from Essex, died in Basildon.

The deaths took the number of UK deaths linked to swine flu to 17.

Nearly 10,000 Britons have been confirmed with swine flu but hundreds of thousands more are thought to have the virus.

The number of cases is now being estimated as the numbers rise too high for individual patients to be swabbed and counted.

The British Medical Association (BMA) and The Royal College of General Practitioners are also uging the public to remain calm.

"While these individual deaths are tragedies for the families concerned it is very important that members of the public do not panic, and continue to follow health advice about swine flu and managing it if they are infected," said Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GPs Committee.