Deadly flu is 'inevitable'

Scotsman
Oct. 02, 2005

THE Chief Medical Officer for England said yesterday it was a "biological inevitability" that an expected flu pandemic would seriously affect the health of people in the United Kingdom.

Sir Liam Donaldson, who restated that contingency plans are looking at 50,000 UK deaths from the pandemic, was asked if this country was ready to face the threat.

"I don't think I would ever want to be as bold as to claim that," he told BBC Radio 4's The World At One. "It's inevitable that when the flu pandemic comes, and we don't know whether that will be next winter or even in five or 10 years' time, that it will have a very serious impact on the health of our country. That's a biological inevitability."

Sir Liam warned that anti-viral drugs currently being stockpiled in anticipation of a pandemic

would not eliminate the problem. But he said: "For people who get it, it should reduce the severity of their attack and it should prevent many people from dying."