The economic cost of swine flu
Updated on 16 July 2009
Darshna Soni has a detailed account of the swine flu dangers that lie ahead and the likely effect on both society and the UK economy.
As the emergency services draw up plans to deal with the spread of the swine flu virus, a senior officer from West Midlands Police has told Channel 4 News that his force is planning for up to half of people to be infected.
At the same time, a report by economists says a possible six-month pandemic would result in a five per cent loss of output - causing serious economic damage at a time of recession.
Our Midlands correspondent Darshna Soni reports on how the emergency services and local authorities are preparing.
Business continuity expert Lyndon Bird and head of emergency planning at Hampshire County Council, Ian Holt join Jon Snow in the studio.
Ian Holt has been working on this for nearly five years. He says the potential impact of an epidemic such as swine flu has been at the top of planning considerations.
'There are two focuses of the work we've being doing,' he said, 'the first is keeping the public as healthy as possible. Internally what we've looked at is identifying our critical services ... and ensuring we have everything in place to keep those services going.'
Lyndon Bird described the new projected figures as 'frightening' and suggested that the focus of current planning should not just be on supply but also on the demand side: 'Leisure, travel, all those businesses will be rapidly affected.'
'Small businesses will be very badly hit,' he added.
