BBC connecting deaths to Swine flu in fear mongering tactic?

Just take a look at these snippets from th BBC.

A nine-year-old girl in London and a man and a girl in West Yorkshire have all died after contracting swine flu.

The child from south London had "serious underlying health problems," as did the other two victims, who are thought to be from Dewsbury.

BBC

A 19-year-old man has died after contracting swine flu in London, health authorities in the capital have said.

The man, from south London, had serious underlying health problems and was in Lewisham Hospital. Tests undertaken after his death showed he had the flu.

BBC

A girl, thought to be six years old, has died at Birmingham Children's Hospital after contracting swine flu.

NHS West Midlands said the girl, who had other serious health problems, died on Friday evening. It is not known if flu contributed to her death.

BBC



I just get the feeling that these poor people, who had health problems anyway, are being used by the BBC and the Health Department to spread fear and panic with regards to Swine Flu.

They never say they died of swine flu, just that they had swine flu when they died.

It just reeks of fear-mongering!

Any thoughts?

It is rather IN YOUR FACE afterall theres swine flu in my school, but they said the government has stopped all schools from closing or well thats wht my school is telling me, more to the point there seems to be much hype in the media, they try to make it sound really bad and worse than it really is.

reply to post by kiwifoot



Here is the same story reported in the Yorkshire Post www.yorkshirepost.co.uk...

Man and girl dead in Dewsbury after catching swine flu


Two people in Dewsbury have died after catching swine flue


Published Date: 06 July 2009
A GIRL of nine and a man, believed to be a teacher, have died in Dewsbury after catching swine flu, it was confirmed today. The girl died on Thursday and the man on Sunday.
The deaths in the West Yorkshire town were confirmed today by officials from NHS Kirklees.

The girl who died, Asmaa Hussain, nine, from Scout Hill, Dewsbury, had epilepsy.

It is the second tragedy to hit the family. Her father died two months ago.

The man who died was 42 and lived in the Savile Town area of Dewsbury. He was from a South Asian background. It is believed he suffered from lung and kidney problems.

It is believed that the man was a teacher at the Institute of Islamic Education, a private boarding school in Savile Town, Dewsbury, although NHS Kirklees officials would not comment on this.

The coroner has been informed of both deaths.

The Yorkshire Post understands that there will not be an inquest into the man's death as the coroner has decided that he died from natural causes, although the exact cause of his death has not been publicly released.

A post mortem examination on the girl is expected to be conducted later this week.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said that if the deaths are confirmed as swine flu they will be the sixth and seventh confirmed deaths in the UK.

A spokesperson for NHS Kirklees said: "We can confirm that a child from the Kirklees area, who had swine flu, has died. The child also had serious underlying health issues.

"At this stage, we have no confirmation whether or not swine flu was the cause of death."

The poulation of Dewsbury is 54,341

On July the second a total of 140 swine flu cases have now been diagnosed in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

/lzyo59

It is believed that the man was a teacher at the Institute of Islamic Education, a private boarding school in Savile Town, Dewsbury, although NHS Kirklees officials would not comment on this.

Linked to this outbreak /lzyo59

Kirklees swine flu school stays closed

Jul 2 2009 By Huddersfield Examiner

A DEWSBURY school remained closed today after three pupils were diagnosed with swine flu.

The boys – all pupils at the Institute of Islamic Education College – are the first in Kirklees to be treated for the virus.

The teenagers are said to be responding well to antiviral drugs at the private Savile Town boarding school.

They are not thought to have recently travelled abroad.

Today, it emerged more pupils and staff at the college were showing flu-like symptoms leading to a decision to close the school for seven days.

They have also been offered antiviral treatment and are being monitored by health officials.

The all-boy independent school is home to 214 boarding pupils and around 100 day students aged between 12 and 19.

All UK-based pupils have been sent home while those from overseas are continuing to board at the school.

Dr Judith Hooper, director of public health for NHS Kirklees said: "We can confirm that three cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Kirklees.

"The individuals concerned are pupils at the Institute of Islamic Education College, Dewsbury, and are being treated at Dewsbury with antiviral medicine at the Institute.

"They are responding well to treatment.

What are the odds?

[edit on 6-7-2009 by tarifa37]

I'm sure U.K. Statistics for Influenza are similar to the U.S. (percentage-wise anyway).

Here in the U.S. we have an estimated 20,000 deaths a year due to complications caused by influenza. Despite this estimation, there are only 257 laboratory confirmed deaths a year (on average) due to influenza. Of these, the danger-risk ranges are Children Ages 0-4 who are immunized, Ages 0-17 who are not immunized, and Ages 65+. The fatality rate for influenza A, B, A+B for those three age groups is 2.5%, 3.2% and 4.8% respectively.

In almost all (94%) of those cases, death was not directly due to influenza, but due to "complications" caused by the influenza with pre-existing medical conditions.

(All above statistics from NIAID, NCHS, and CDC)

So, in any influenza outbreak, the majority of deaths are going to be the extremely young who do not have fully developed immune systems, the elderly who have weakened immune systems, and those with pre-existing medical conditions.

The question to ask, to determine if the media is hype or not, is to compare infection vs fatality rates of any variant flu strain, such as Novel H1N1 (Swine Flu) and compare it with standard influenza infection vs fatality rates. If it has a similar or less than ratio than standard influenza, then it's headline hype.

In the U.S. at least, Novel H1N1 has failed to show any greater infection vs fatality rate than the normal run of the mill strains A and B influenza, and has continued to follow the same trends as it's A and B cousins. Certainly nothing for us to get our panties in a bunch over.