The Government is unlikely to keep schools closed in the autumn as it would be “too disruptive” despite scientists claiming it could cut the number of swine flu cases by up to 45 per cent.

Researchers from the department of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London said that asking parents to keep their children at home in September could stifle transmission and buy time to produce vaccines.

Professor Neil Ferguson and Dr Simon Cauchemez quoted a recent French study that said that proactive school closures, before mass infections took hold in the close confines of school classrooms, would cut the number of swine flu cases by 13 to 17 per cent overall and by between 38 and 45 per cent at the peak of the outbreak.

The swine flu virus has been disproportionately prevalent in young children.

“It is… hoped that closure of schools during the pandemic might break the chains of transmission, with the following potential benefits,” they wrote in the Lancet medical journal.

“(These are) reducing the total number of cases; slowing the epidemic to give more time for vaccine production; and reducing the incidence of cases at the peak of the epidemic, limiting both the stress on healthcare systems and peak absenteeism in the general population.”

Source/Full Story: Times Online

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