Dealing with the spread of swine flu

According to reports every household in Britain is due to receive informational leaflets providing advice on preventing the spread of swine flu. In addition the Government are said to be ordering over 30 million paper face masks.

The big question is - do these face masks work? It is believed that they don't prevent the wearer from catching the flu but they do prevent people from spreading it to others around them.

Would you start wearing a face mask if given one? Will you be going one better by purchasing your own face mask rather than waiting for free hand-outs?

With deaths attributed to the flu restricted to Mexico do you think the media are over-reacting or do you believe we are past the point of no return and it is now inevitable that there will be a death in the UK due to the spread of swine flu? With officials in the US saying deaths are 'expected' and deaths in the UK are 'likely 'it would certainly appear to be a serious threat, although so far only 7 of the reported 159 related deaths have been confirmed as being caused by the virus.

What is worrying is how easily the virus seems to be spreading around the world with Germany the latest county to confirm its first case on the virus.

So will the virus eventually become classed as a pandemic? If it does it would be the first pandemic since 1968 when the "Hong Kong" flu killed over 1 million people worldwide, which itself was 50 years after the Spanish flu killed over 40 million in 1916 according to World Health Organization statistics.