What are the symptoms of swine flu?
Swine flu is currently manifesting as normal flu. The symptoms are fevers, headaches, muscle and joint aches, exhaustion, lethargy, coughing and sneezing.

Where has it come from?
It has come from pigs in Mexico. We have been concerned for a long time that an animal flu would become transmissible between humans and that is what has happened.
The problem with an animal flu is that we have little or no immunity to it. That is why indigenous Americans were wiped out, not by the aggression of European invaders so much as by the viruses they brought, which had not been seen there before. Fortunately, flu vaccination appears to have provided a little protection against this H1N1 virus, which was what Doctorcall had predicted might happen.

Does wearing a mask really stop you from getting swine flu?
Face masks help a very small amount. They are probably better at preventing you giving it to people than preventing you receiving it.

What else can people do to prevent them from getting it?
There are a number of things people can do: Hygiene (washing hands and sneezing into disposable tissues), social avoidance, keeping generally well fed, warm and rested. We have recommended keeping the office warm and putting humidifiers in it to help prevent the spread of the virus, and this idea has been taken up now and recommended in a number of situations. If you haven't had it by next autumn, make sure you have a flu jab, which you can get from a number of supermarket and pharmacy chains. We offer them in Boots, Morrison's, Asda and Superdrug. You could ask you company HR department if they are offering them to staff.

90 people returned to Manchester recently on a flight from Mexico. If one of these people had swine flu but didn't realise, how fast could it spread?
Swine flu spreads very quickly and people are infectious before they know they have got it. There is a principle called HERD IMMUNITY where if a sufficient proportion of the population are immune, it won't spread very far. However, with swine flu there is no herd immunity and one person could easily lead to an outbreak that could get out of control. It is therefore essential that people report all cases of possible flu immediately and we or your own GP can send out a doctor to take samples and get you tested and treated.

According to the World Health Organisation, swine flu has been alerted to level five - one below a pandemic. Should people in this country be worried?
Should we be worried? We flu specialists have been worried for a number of years. The current virus does not at present appear to be very dangerous, but even so, in a year when 10% of the population contract flu there may be around 4,000 deaths in the UK. In this situation, if 50% of the population get it, there may be 20,000 deaths in the UK, so that is not insignificant. However, we are fortunate that the time of year is not a typical time for flu and that may limit its spread. Generally these viruses become less dangerous over time rather than more dangerous. Therefore we can hope that this won't be more than a very bad bout of flu. However, there is always the danger of a more dangerous pandemic: The world remains on Level 3 alert for bird flu for example. So rather than be worried, we should all carry on with our lives, but we aware, report any symptoms and when we get to the Autumn, have a flu jab.

Dr Charles Levinson, CEO, Doctorcall Medical Services Group

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