Health News

Doctor in Switzerland infects patients with swine flu

Aug 12, 2009, 13:08 GMT

Geneva - Two pregnant women and 10 medical workers were infected with swine flu, after a doctor spread the virus to them, Swiss media reported Wednesday.

The doctor had returned from a holiday with A(H1N1), the virus' technical name, and went straight back to his job at a hospital in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

He apparently felt somewhat ill when he arrived at the maternity ward, where he worked, but thought nothing of it.

A patient can contract swine flu - and spread the disease to others - 24 hours or more before any symptoms start to appear.

Doctors were being told to stay home at the first sign of any flu-like illness, and not to pop an aspirin and head to work, as they might have normally done.

The incident in Lausanne took place in late July. The ill, including the pregnant women, were treated with anti-viral drugs and none are said to be in serious condition, according to hospital officials.