FOUR MORE people have died of human swine flu in the Republic, the Department of Health confirmed yesterday.
About 3 per cent of the population has contracted the virus to date.
The latest to die were all adults, two women and a man from the east and a woman from the south, all of whom had underlying medical conditions. Their deaths bring the number to die of the pandemic H1N1 virus in the State to 14.
At a briefing in Government Buildings last night, it was announced that about 30,000 people contracted the virus in the Republic last week.
The rate of infection in the community fell from 210 to 178.5 cases per 100,000 of the population, with the highest rate of infection – 383 cases per 100,000 – recorded among children aged under four.
Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer at the Department of Health, said the weekly rates may have been skewed, as schools were on holiday and doctor’s surgeries only opened for four days because of the bank holiday.
The rate of infection is calculated weekly by the Health Surveillance Protection Centre (HPSC), which receives regular updates from doctors across the State.
“Overall, we think, about 3 per cent of the population have shown clinical signs of H1N1 so far,” said HPSC director Dr Darina O’Flanagan.
Dr Holohan said the number of people who had so far been hospitalised by the virus increased by 173 to 665 last week. Some 165 of these are currently in hospital and 19 are receiving treatment in intensive care units. About 40 per cent of those hospitalised and 80 per cent of those treated in intensive care units have an underlying health condition.
Dr Holohan said pregnant women accounted for 6 per cent of those hospitalised to date and the figure underscored how important it was that expecting mothers received the vaccine.
From today, a number of hospitals will enforce new policies on visitors in an attempt to prevent the transmission of the virus.
Dublin’s three main maternity hospitals – the Coombe, the Rotunda and Holles Street – said visiting would be restricted to the partner of, or one nominated visitor for, expectant mothers, new mothers and gynaecology in-patients.
Commenting on the development, Dr Holohan said: “We will be recommending on a national level at this point that people stay away from hospitals. Stay away other than in necessary situations for visiting hospitals.
“Children under the age of 14 should avoid visiting hospitals because of the risk of transmission of influenza in that situation.”
Dr Kevin Kelleher, the Health Service Executive (HSE) assistant national director of health protection, said more than 20,000 people from at-risk groups had been vaccinated so far this week and the vaccine takes about two weeks to become effective.
The Department of Health estimated that it could take six to eight months to vaccinate the entire population, as supplies of the vaccines were limited.
Some 250,000 doses of the vaccine have been distributed to date.
