Fall in people receiving swine flu antiviral drugs

Friday 22nd January 2010

The number of people being treated with antiviral drugs for swine flu has halved.

Only 6,337 people have received the treatments through the National Pandemic Flu Service this week – down from 13,436 the week before.

And the number of new cases of the disease has stayed below 5,000 for the third consecutive week.

Figures have revealed there were 12.1 GP consultations per 100,000 of the population for flu-like illness in England for the week ending 17 January.

A total of 211 patients are in hospital with swine flu, 62 of whom are in critical care.

The details came in the Department of Health's first fortnightly statistical bulletin.

Over the Christmas and New Year period, new cases of swine flu fell to their lowest level since the early stages of the disease and dropped to below 5,000 in the first week of January.

A total of 3.7 million priority groups in England have been vaccinated, including 132,000 pregnant women and 214,000 children aged from six months to five years, according to the figures.

Copyright © Press Association 2010

Pandemic Flu