Flu monitoring in the UK

By Patricia Reaney

LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - British public health experts on Wednesday unveiled one of the largest systems in Europe for collecting data about people with flu-like symptoms, aimed at improving Britain's preparedness for an influenza pandemic.

Health experts believe an influenza pandemic capable of killing millions of people is already overdue. The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed 143 people since 2003. It is still an animal disease but scientists fear the virus could mutate to become highly infectious in humans.

The QFLU system shown at the Health Protection Agency (HPA) conference in Coventry covers nearly 3,000 general practices across the country and more than 17 million people.

QFLU will track the number of people visiting their family doctors with flu-like symptoms and respiratory problems and patients prescribed antiviral drugs. If a pandemic strain of flu emerges, the information could be vital in identifying outbreaks early, the HPA said. "It is certainly a big step forward," Dr Gillian Smith, who headed the project at the HPA, said in an interview.

"The difference is the extent of the coverage of this and the number of people we can get data about and the localness of it," she said.

While the current scheme reports data on a weekly basis, which would be too late if a strain of pandemic flu emerged, QFLU would allow HPA experts to analyse the information daily.

QFLU is one of the biggest systems in Europe, Smith said, but the technology could be replicated in other countries where general practitioners use a similar computer system.

"QFLU has been developed to be quick, efficient and easy to use by those who will be in the frontline," she added.

QFLU was developed by surveillance experts at the HPA, which monitors infectious diseases in Britain, and scientists from the University of Nottingham and EMIS, which provides software systems for general practitioners.

Julia Hippisley-Cox, a professor at the University of Nottingham and a co-founder of QFLU, encouraged more family doctors to join the scheme.

"Pandemic flu is not an easy thing to prepare for," she said in a statement. "The information will help individual practices ... to plan resources for their patients, as well as helping the government to plan on a national scale."

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