Flu experts are looking very closely at Britain _ and some have decided that the U.K.'s swine flu-fighting tactics are seriously off the mark and may be hiding a much larger outbreak, according to AP. Since Britain has the most confirmed swine flu cases in Europe, how the outbreak develops here will have a significant influence on whether the World Health Organization decides to raise its flu alert to the highest level _ a pandemic, or global epidemic. British authorities have relied on an aggressive strategy to try to snuff out the virus before it spreads, blanketing suspect cases and anyone connected to them with the antiviral medication Tamiflu. But experts criticize the strategy for wasting valuable medicine and say there's little point trying to contain swine flu, which is more infectious than regular flu. «Containment using Tamiflu is a flawed concept,» said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota. «It's like trying to maintain the integrity of your submarine with screen doors.» Osterholm, who has advised U.S. authorities on preparing for a pandemic, said the swine flu virus travels too fast to stop it with Tamiflu. «You are never going to contain a flu virus with this strategy and at the end of it all, you will have wasted time and drugs,» he said, because it takes much more Tamiflu to prevent a case than it does to treat one. Similar strategies were initially tried in the U.S, Canada and Japan but authorities quickly dumped the tactic. Japanese officials had hoped to contain their outbreak, but now say they probably can't, as confirmed cases soared from four to more than 260 in just a week. Authorities in Mexico never even tried to contain the virus, it was too widespread before they realized what it was.
