A study suggest that children are twice as likely to catch swine flu

Children are twice as likely as adults to catch swine flu, according to a joint UK-US study. Imperial College London researchers and a team from the US looked at how the virus spread among families. Their experiment involved more than 800 people as their experimental objects, and the result showed that although children catch the swine flu easier than adults, they are not more contagious than older people or “super spreaders”.

What is more, there is thought to be a large pool of children who have been infected but not displayed symptoms.  This research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, confirmed that children were more likely to become infected.

They said it meant suggestions at the start of the pandemic that people should stay at home for up to seven days when ill was probably unnecessary. Lead researcher Dr Simon Cauchemez said: “If they are only likely to transmit the virus to other people for the first few days of their illness, keeping people off work for a week may be unnecessary and could be detrimental to the economy.”

A Department of Health spokesman said, “All further information continues to add to our knowledge and understanding of the virus.”