Swine flu virus 'not yet mutating'
Updated on 13 July 2009
Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, tells Jon Snow there is no sign of swine flu evolving into a more serious disease, following the death of a girl aged six and GP Dr Michael Day.
Bedfordshire GP Dr Michael Day died at the weekend and his family called him a caring and unique person who had always been devoted to his patients.
Six-year-old Chloe Buckley from north west London died in hospital on Thursday.
Channel 4 News understands she had no underlying health issues although tests are being carried out to confirm this. The head of the local health trust said her death was unlikely to be the last in this flu pandemic.
Interview: Sir Liam Donaldson
Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer for England, insists there is no sign of swine flu evolving into a more serious disease.
He said: "This small number of people who are susceptible to the serious complications seem to be overwhelmed by the virus quite quickly. It spills over into their blood stream, they get septicemia, their vital organs are hit particularly hard and they go downhill quickly.
"It isn't common but when it does happen it tends to overwhelm the body in that sort of way and people deteriorate very quickly.
"But remember also that many patients have already been admitted to hospital and the majority of those have made a good recovery and been discharged.
"The drug Tamiflu was never 100 per cent effective in everybody, it reduces the symptoms and as a result usually reduces the severity of the attack if given early.
"We'll be evaluating all of this in retrospect but the impression is that our aggressive approach early on, when we were able to trace contacts as well as treat cases, helped to protect people and also slow down the progress of this pandemic."
