A QUARTER of the Irish population could become infected with swine flu, according to the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive (HSE).
In a letter to GPs and other health professionals yesterday urging assistance with the pandemic, the department and the HSE said that even though most cases would be mild, “an infection rate in our population of 25 per cent . . . will generate sufficient morbidity to place significant strain on family doctors, hospitals, ventilation equipment and intensive care facilities’’.
Written by Dr Tony Holohan, the department’s chief medical officer, and Dr Patrick Doorley, the HSE’s national director of population health, the letter added that as the infection spreads it is inevitable the virus will become “established” in this country.
They said studies suggest a larger wave of infection, with more illness and death, in the autumn and winter.
A further 11 cases of influenza A (H1N1) were confirmed in the State yesterday, bringing the total number to 144.
Doctors are advised to give antivirals only to patients who appear to have severe symptoms, patients in high risk groups (including over-65s and children under five, those with chronic respiratory conditions, suppressed immune systems or diabetes, those on asthma medication, the severely obese and pregnant women) and to all suspected cases with a household contact in a very high risk group.