Swine flu takes a holiday

This week's swine flu figures leave me more dizzy than if I had taken a course of Tamiflu. There's talk of the outbreak slowing down but also warnings that it will get a lot worse. It's unclear from most reports how the figures are calculated - do the 110,000 new cases include those diagnosed by helpline or website? - and The Guardian refers to four new deaths but these aren't seemingly included in the latest figures. Perhaps this is related to the government's "new way of counting mortality" refererred to last week. If figures are slowing down, that's got to be good news but am I the only one to think of a correlation with the start of the school holidays? Suddenly that sore throat and headache is not so bad afterall as families pack their bags and head off to sunnier climes. Enjoy your holidays - but check which country you're going to: Globally deaths from swine flu have topped 1000. Some countries are not yet affected and looking at the global map, a holiday anywhere but Britain would seem the safest bet.