SWINE FLU, the H1N1 virus, may prove to be more of a problem for younger people than older people, according to a senior Health Service Executive (HSE) representative.
Dr Kevin Kelleher, head of health protection with the executive, said the disease appeared to be affecting people in their 20s and teens.
On Thursday the virus was declared the world’s first flu pandemic for 41 years by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“Seasonal flu has always been more of a problem for older people and also for people with certain chronic diseases,” Dr Kelleher said.
“What we have witnessed now around the world is that it’s actually more of an issue for people under 50 and people in their teens and 20s.”
However, Dr Kelleher said this situation could change.
He said few countries were as well prepared as Ireland for the flu, as there are enough anti-virals to treat half the population.
“We have enough to cover over 50 per cent of the population receiving the dose,” he said.
“It would have to be a particularly problematic virus for what we have to be not enough.
“Very few other countries in the world have the sort of level we have.”
Dr Kelleher said the executive presumed that “we will see the worst element of this more in the winter months”.
He said flu was a disease that is spread by person-to-person contact. “That happens mostly in winter months when we are inside. When we are outside we have far more personal space.
“Our presumption is that we will see the worst element of this more in the winter months.”
He said it was “flu season” in the southern hemisphere and the health authorities here would learn from what happened there.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical company Novartis AG said it had produced the first batch of a vaccine for the virus for testing ahead of schedule.
The vaccine will enter clinical trials next month and should be available by the autumn, according to spokesman Eric Althoff.
Dr Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO, said on Thursday that pending the availability of vaccines, several non-pharmaceutical interventions could confer some protection.
“WHO continues to recommend no restrictions on travel and no border closures,” she said.
“Influenza pandemics, whether moderate or severe, are remarkable events because of the almost universal susceptibility of the world’s population to infection.”
However, she added: “We are all in this together, and we will all get through this, together.”
Meanwhile, an eighth case of H1N1 swine flu was confirmed by Northern Ireland’s Health Minister last night.
The female patient who recently returned from the US has mild flu symptoms and is recovering at home.
China has detected swine flu cases that are similar to the strain reported in the US and Mexico, said the Chinese health ministry. China reported 126 cases of the flu caused by the H1N1 virus.
