people w/ face masks
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Recently a report was issued by the Department of Health which warned that the outbreak of a new influenza epidemic was one of the greatest threats facing the UK and it would be difficult to stop it as vaccines would take months to develop.

It also suspected that the half of the population was under the danger of developing symptoms of the disease which would flood the hospitals with patients costing the economy around £28billion.

Authorities have issued an official advice in the form of the UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011 and officials are taking it seriously as around one million people died because of H1N1 virus in 2009.

It also suggested local authorities to ensure that they had plans in place to surge their capacity to cope with an increase in burials and cremations during a pandemic.

Warning about this big threat, it said, "In a severe pandemic, factors such as pressures on the health services, potential prioritization of clinical countermeasures, measures to control the spread of infection, possible shortages of basic necessities or short-lived disruption to essential services could result in disturbances or threaten breakdowns in public order".

Though it would not be possible to stop this spread but government has stockpiled two types of antiviral medicines that could reduce the symptoms of flu.