UK swine flu death toll reaches 29

By Catherine Bosley

LONDON (Reuters) - Twenty-nine Britons infected with the H1N1 flu virus have died and officials have made plans to cope with nearly a third of the population falling ill, the health department said Thursday.

A further 30 percent of the population may catch the virus without developing symptoms, the department said in a planning document published on its website.

"If the current growth in cases is sustained, a substantial wave of cases with up to 30 percent of the population experiencing symptoms could peak in early September," the document said.

However, it stressed that its figures were based on a "reasonable worst case" scenario to help health services to plan and were not a prediction.

There is a chance the virus' spread could slow during the school summer holidays before peaking in October after children go back to school, the document added.

"Hospitalisations have doubled in the last week," the top medical officer Liam Donaldson told a news conference. "We cannot give an estimate of likely deaths for this virus, it is far, far too early."

The majority of the estimated 55,000 new cases of swine flu last week were mild. The under-5s and 5- to 14-year-olds are the age groups predominantly affected. Patients with pre-existing illnesses were most at risk of dying.

The World Health Organisation said Thursday that the flu pandemic was the fastest-moving pandemic ever and that it was now pointless to count every case.