The swine flu outbreak is almost over

Flu deaths have reached 338 since the start of the flu season last October.

According to GPs all over the UK, the latest deaths have not occurred in the past two weeks, but have just been reported because of the time taken to verify they were actually linked to the flu.

Ninety-two per cent of the deaths (at least 310 people), have been linked to swine flu and most people who died belonged to an at-risk group, meaning they had an underlying health condition such as hearth disease or diabetes, or were aged 65 or over.

New data also reveal decline in levels of flu across the UK and according to the latest tests, swine flu is not longer the dominant strain of the virus.

First teenager killed in London in 2011

A teenage boy died yesterday in stab attack and three of his friends were injured.

The accident took place in the afternoon just outside the youngsters’ school gate, in West Green Road, Tottenham.

15-year-old Kasey was killed as he left Park View Academy and it is thought the fight broke up between a group of teenagers, including a girl and a man in his early thirties.

Reports suggested the victim stepped in to protect his female friend from unwanted attention and the rest of the group waded in to help him.

Onlookers said the children surrounded the man, punching and kicking him before Kasey staggered away and collapsed bleeding.

Whatever the man used to injure the teens, he had in his hand and could have been a screwdriver or a knife.

Paramedics tried to save Kasey but he was pronounced dead at the scene, while his friends, aged 14, 15 and 16, were taken to hospital; their condition was described as not critical.

A 33-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the attack; police are still investigating.

Pupils will drop out of college because of EMA cuts

A poll from University and College Union reveals that 70 per cent of pupils would drop out of college if the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was withdrawn.

Five weeks after the last protest against plan to axe poor pupils’ EMA grants took place across the UK, hundreds of students gathered once again yesterday. They protested outside Parliament as MP’s voted to scrap the Educational Maintenance Allowance.

The youngsters marched from Piccadilly Circus to Parliament Square in the minutes before MPs voted.

Labour had called for education secretary Michael Gove to reconsider plans to scrap the £ 30-a-week allowance, but it was defeated by 317 votes to 258. The centre-left party had introduced EMAs in 2004 to encourage young people from deprived backgrounds to stay in education and training after the age of 16.

While shadow education secretary Andy Burnham highlighted that the number of students staying in education after the age of 16 has risen from 47 per cent in 1985 to 82 per cent in 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron said the £ 500 million EMA scheme was inefficient and not beneficial to the present economic climate.

The 650,000 teenagers who currently get the grant will continue to receive it for the rest of the academic year, but no new applications are being accepted for the scheme.

These students, who constitute almost half of the pupils in full-time education, could drop out of college by September 2011.

Number of swine flu deaths reaches 95 in UK

Since the start of the flu season last October, 112 people have died with the virus in Britain, the government has confirmed.

UK flu deaths doubled last week from 50 to 112 due to the time lag between infection and confirming cause.

Of these, 95 had the pandemic H1N1 swine flu strain.

Even though the majority of victims is still of the age group 15 to 64, there is rising concern in medical circles that more children risk falling victim to swine flu.

Under current rules, in fact, the swine flu jab is only offered to little ones and adults with underlying health conditions, pregnant women and people over 65.

The parents of Lana Ameen, a three-year-old girl who died the day after Christmas in Stockport, Great Manchester, made the brave decision to release the last image of their dying daughter, to urge the government to review its vaccination policy.

Little Lana was not eligible for the jab as she did not have any underlying health issue; she died just two days after developing swine flu symptoms.

Despite a Government’s declaration according to which the outbreak may still not have peaked and an increasing number of people suffering from flu across the Midlands, ministers are maintaining a hard line and refusing to make the flu vaccine available to all children.

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) records remind that as bad as the flu strain is, it is not yet as serious as the pandemic of 2009, when 149 people died directly of the disease.

Swine flu alert

Flu alert raised as parts of Britain experience the worst flu outbreak in a decade.

Since October flu has killed 50 people across the country, including 13 children; of those who died, 45 were suffering from swine flu or H1N1. More than 700 patients are currently in intensive care, including around a hundred sufferers in London.

The nationwide figure is four times higher than at the peak of last year's pandemic.

There are other two strains of flu circulating this winter: influenza B and H2N3, but experts say swine flu is far more prevalent than the other two strains, as H1N1 gets to the parts other flu viruses don't reach and is therefore providing more deadly.

While figures show that cases are concentrated in the south and central regions, with lower rates in the north, ministers have urged manufacturers of flu vaccine to check their European stocks, as many GP surgeries across Britain are running out of flu vaccine at the moment, especially in London.

Most of those who are eligible for the jab on the NHS had the injection already, but many who belong to the at-risk groups, such as children, teenagers, the elderly and pregnant women, are still on a long waiting list.

Parents unable to get their children vaccinated turned to pharmacies, but several high street chains are refusing to provide the little ones with swine flu jabs, citing company guidelines.

This scenario, coupled with nine million pupils returning to school after the Christmas break, could see swine flu among the young spiral.