State still has single swine flu case

Ireland is still dealing with just one confirmed case of the so-called swine flu virus and no other probable cases have emerged, the State's chief medical officer said tonight.

In Dublin this evening, Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer at the Department of Health, said Ireland would remain at alert level five, but if the pattern were to progress to sustained person to person transmission, particularly in the European Union, it could be increased to alert level six.

The six levels are based on the World Health Organisation's scale for the spread of a pandemic.

“It’s something that is part of the discussions that we are having daily both in the country and at international level,” he said.“If that were to occur it wouldn’t necessarily surprise us and we would be prepared for that," Dr Holohan said.

He said increasing the alert level would not necessarily result in a significant rise in the number of cases in this country, but it would be a declaration of the status of the incident on a global basis.

Dr Holohan said the Irish man who contracted the virus was improving and that he was relatively well as of yesterday. He also called on the public not to become complacent about the potential spread of the virus.

Dr Kevin Kelleher, head of health protection at the HSE, said information leaflets are currently being printed and are due to be distributed to households around the country later this week and early next week.

“We are advising people that when they receive this leaflet they should read it and then store it in a safe place. If the World Health Organisation changes the phase of influenza A(H1N1) from level 5 to 6 the information and advice in the leaflet will be important for families”, Dr Kelleher said.

Posters with important information on the virus will also be on display in public offices such as Garda stations.

There have been over a thousand calls to HSE’s flu information line since last Friday. It can be contacted at freephone 1 800941100.