First patient-to healthcare provider influneza infection reported

In Scotland, a nurse who was caring for a flu patient in ICU has taken ill, herself, and is in critical condition.

As far as I can tell from my own research, this is the first case of patient-provider transmission: again, mirroring 1918.

www.nursingtimes.net...

The 26-year-old nurse is the first healthcare professional to catch swine flu in the UK.

The nurse, who works at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, had treated a 38-year-old woman who is now in intensive care with the virus in Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.

The news comes as a fourth person, a 23-year-old woman from Paisley, was admitted to intensive care with the virus in Scotland.

Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said in light of the new case procedures for hospital staff are being reinforced.

Ms Sturgeon said: ‘As a result of developments over the past few days or so, we are now asking hospital staff to treat all patients with pneumonia or any other conditions that might be suggestive of this virus, to presume that they are positive until we know otherwise.’

[edit on 4-6-2009 by CultureD]

news.bbc.co.uk...

Two doctors in Scotland have also taken ill with H1N1 after caring for patients ill with the virus.

A 14-month-old baby, whose condition is improving in Glasgow's Yorkhill hospital, is also one of the cases.

Officials confirmed two doctors at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley are thought to have caught the H1N1 virus from patients being treated there.

The number of cases of swine flu in Scotland has risen seven-fold in a week, and the country now accounts for a quarter of all cases of the virus in the UK.