The proportion of patients in hospital with swine flu who have been admitted to intensive care continues to rise in England, said the chief medical officer, Liam Donaldson, last week.

In the week to 28 October 157 of 751 hospitalised patients with the illness (21%) had to go into intensive care, up from 63 of 840 patients (7.5%) in the last week of July, when the epidemic reached a peak before the school holidays began.⇓ ⇓

“There is an eerie similarity to what happened in Australia,” said Professor Donaldson at a press briefing on 29 October. At one point during Australia’s …