# 4343
In another sign that the pandemic of 2009 is winding down – at least for now – the UK has closed their pandemic flu hotline. If needed, it could be reactivated in a week’s time, according to officials.
The Pandemic Flu Hotline has not been without its critics, of course.
Some have felt that the liberal dispensing of antivirals – based solely on a telephone questionnaire – was an inappropriate and potentially dangerous mitigation measure.
Others believe that rapid access to antivirals saved lives and took a tremendous burden off of their National Health Service.
No doubt post-pandemic analyses will be conducted of this mitigation strategy, along with those run by other countries, to see what worked well . . . and what didn’t.
One of the advantages of not having everyone on the same mitigation page is that we now have some data for comparisons, and hopefully will be able to make better informed decisions in the next global health crisis.
This from Emergency Services News.
Swine Flu services close
February 11th, 2010
The National Pandemic Flu Service, set up to support the NHS in dispensing drugs to patients at the height of the pandemic, has closed today.
The service has closed after a sharp decline in the number of recorded new cases of the virus.
Official shave said that both the hotline and website that were established as part of the service could be up and running again in seven days if new cases begin to rise again.
Britain was among the first countries hit by swine flu after it emerged in Mexico early last year, and at one point recorded more than 100 000 new cases a week as the virus was officially declared a pandemic.
The latest update from the Department of Health, on February 4, said new cases of swine flu remain near their lowest level since the virus first appeared here. However, the vaccination programme is continuing.
So far, about five million of the 90 million doses of antiviral drugs that were made available have actually been dispensed.
