Swine Flu — Statement

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:30 pm on 27 April 2009.

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Photo of Lord Darzi of Denham Lord Darzi of Denham Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health) 5:30, 27 April 2009

My Lords, on that note, as we are coming to the end, let me say that I could not agree more with the noble Countess. The most important message that we can get out is about preventive measures. We have all sorts of campaigns, such as "Catch It, Bin It, Kill It", which means that, if you sneeze, catch it in a tissue, destroy that tissue immediately and wash your hands. These are the most important principles in preventing a pandemic. We are doing everything possible to get that message out to the community. I do not have information on the infectiveness of the virus, but I remind the House that in some cases the patient may be completely asymptomatic but still infective, so the infectivity period is so far hard to judge.