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Swine flu hotline open on Thursday
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A new UK information line providing advice about the swine flu outbreak will be up and running on Thursday, Health Secretary Alan Johnson has said.
Mr Johnson said concerned members of the public will be able to call 0800 1513513 for recorded information about the virus.
Meanwhile, the pandemic alert level of the World Health Organisation has been raised to phase five of six amid the outbreak of swine flu.
Director General of the organisation Dr Margaret Chan announced the change at a press conference in Geneva. She said: "Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously, precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world."
In the UK, updating MPs on the "very fast moving situation", Mr Johnson also confirmed plans to increase stockpiles of medicines including antivirals and antibiotics and the launch of a major public health campaign.
Leaflets about the deadly swine flu virus are to be distributed to all households across the UK as fears grow about the scale of the outbreak.
Mr Johnson told MPs: "Providing information to the public is one of our strongest lines of defence. A mass public health campaign will begin (on Thursday) with print, TV and radio adverts."
The advertisements will warn about the dangers of swine flu and remind people of basic good hygiene measures, a leaflet will provide information on steps to protect against infection and what to do if they contract the virus.
The Health Secretary said anti-viral stocks would be boosted to cover 80% of the population.
"This does not meant hat we expect anywhere near that number of people to be affected, it does mean that we will have anti-viral drugs to treat 50 million people and make sure all frontline NHS staff have their own supplies of anti-virals as a preparatory measure," he said. "The World Health Organisation's message is clear - countries across the world must do everything in their power to prepare for the possibility of a full-blown phase six pandemic."
