A six year old Oxfordshire schoolgirl has been diagnosed with swine flu.

The girl, a pupil at Sandhills primary school, East Oxford, allegedly caught the disease while holidaying in Mexico. She is reported to have attended school for only one day before falling ill. The school was closed for several days as a precautionary measure. However, health officials have urged the public not to panic.

Dr Noel McCarthy, of Thames Valley Health Protection Unit, told the BBC the case had been “contained”, and it is reported that the girl has made a full recovery.

McCarthy praised her family’s “quick and sensible response”, and reassured the public that the girl’s family and everyone else who had been in contact with her had been approached and offered treatment to prevent possible infection.

“The child was in no way ill when she was at school or around that time so there is no risk to anybody at the school,” he added.

“Having said this, the county council and the head of the school are, and will be continuing to contact those in the school to give clear information but mainly to reassure people rather than to say that they need to do anything special.”

Some students, however, have voiced concern. “I know the best thing to do is to keep a stiff upper lip, but its hard not to be worried when a disease which spreads so fast and can kill so quickly comes so close to Oxford,” said one Oriel first-year.

Others disagreed. One New College postgraduate said “the overreaction to swine flu is actually dangerous. It’ll be like the boy who cried wolf – people won’t be as worried as they should be when a really deadly pandemic comes along”.

Andrew Smith, MP for Oxford East, said: “The most important thing here is that the little girl concerned is recovering well, which is great news. We must also thank the health professionals for what by all accounts is good handling of the situation.” He also praised the local media for what he called a “balanced and responsible” response to the situation.

No further cases of the infection have been reported in Oxfordshire.

Elsewhere, pupils at South Hampstead High School, North London, and Alleyn’s School, Dulwich, saw school cancelled for several days after pupils at both schools, both of whom who had also been on holiday in Mexico, contracted the illness. There have been thirty-two confirmed cases of Swine Flu in the UK, but no deaths have been reported. Cases have been reported in nineteen countries, and some British tourists remain in quarantine abroad, most notably in Hong Kong.

Oxford University is currently in the ‘Amber 2 Pandemic Phase’, which, according to the university website, is proportionate to large clusters of human-to-human spread and a substantial pandemic risk. The World Health Organisation pandemic phase is phase 5, one stage before an actual pandemic. The university formed a committee at the end of last week in response to Swine Flu.

Dr Ian Brown, Director of Occupational Health at the University, issued a statement to members of the University on May 1st .

“All staff or students who have returned from Mexico within the last seven days should inform the Occupational Health Department of the University on their return even if they are well,” it read.

“The University of Oxford has comprehensive and detailed plans in place for this contingency: the University’s pandemic flu planning document is available on this website and further guidance has been issued to Colleges and departments.”

On Wednesday, Roger Harrabin, Environmental analyst at the BBC, urged the ‘need for perspective’ on Swine Flu. He compared it to the huge scares during the BSE, SARS and Avian Flu crises, when in each case it was reported that hundreds of thousands could die. In fact, total deaths worldwide from the three ‘pandemics’ combined came to just over one thousand.

Simon Jenkins was another journalist who urged the need for a proportionate response, and slammed virologist John Oxford for referring to a Swine Flu ‘Armageddon’.

Recent reports suggest the virus is past its peak, but England’s chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, warned against complacency because flu viruses could change character “very rapidly”.

The removal of step-ladders in Duke Humfrey’s library due to health and safety concerns has resulted in students being unable to access books on the top shelves in the Arts end of the galleries.

Last year Health and Safety office deemed that the use of step ladders by staff to reach books on the top shelves could result in an accident. Thus, it ordered for the ladders to be removed.

There is no temporary solution in place meaning that several students are currently denied access to books, which they desperately need. A substantial number of early modern printed books has been made inaccessible. Many of the books are not available elsewhere in Oxford.

Kelsey Williams, a graduate student at Balliol explained how not being able to access the book ‘Delitiæ poetarum Scotorum’, would have a detrimental effect on his work.

He said, “Access to it is necessary for my research and when I do eventually consult a copy, I will be forced to waste a day traveling to London and looking at the one in the British Library, despite the fact that I can practically see the Bodleian’s copy every time I walk into Duke Humfreys.”

He dismissed the idea that there was a health and safety risk, saying, “There is no health and safety issue meriting the ladders’ removal. The galleries are perfectly safe and unless someone is simply being careless there is no more danger of falling than of falling off a chair.”

Another graduate, Sam Fallon, expressed frustration at not being able to access books. He said, “I think it’s kind of ridiculous, bureaucracy in overdrive.”

When he requested a book from the top shelf, his book request was cancelled with the notice, “Unable to fetch, book kept on top shelf in gallery. Due to new health and safety measures, step ladders can no longer be used.”

Laurence Benson, Director of Administration and Finance explained, “The balcony has a low rail and we have been instructed by the health and safety office that this increases the risk to those in the balcony…as part of the process the restriction on the use of ladders on the balcony have been introduced.”

He said that the solution to the problems has proved to be “time-consuming”. He added, “The library would prefer to keep the books in their original historic location – where they have been safely consulted for 400 years prior to the instructions from the Health and Safety office.”

Several students have suggested that the books be moved to another location, where they can be easily accessed.

Kelsey Williams said, “Their number is relatively small by the standards of the Bodleian’s vast storage spaces and there would be no difficulty finding room for them elsewhere.”

However, one student claimed that senior officials had forbidden the removal of the books as it would result in the Duke Humfrey’s being “insufficiently pretty for the tourists”.

Oxford’s historic Covered Market is to open for trading on Sundays for the first time this summer.

Many shops and stalls in the market have agreed to trial Sunday openings between the hours of 10am and 4pm, beginning 17th of May.

The weekly Sunday openings will possibly continue until November, when the market has previously opened on Sunday in the run up to Christmas.

Richard Alden, spokesman of the Covered Market Traders’ Association said, “I know some traders still have some misgivings about this, but we want to run the trial until the end of September and we are hoping it will be a success.

“Sunday is the second busiest trading day of the week, and during the summer, there are thousands of tourists and language students in Oxford.”

The plans to open the market on Sundays were announced in March by Mary Clarkson, of Oxford City Council, following discussions between council authorities and the Traders’ Association.

Cllr Mrs Clarkson said, “I think Sunday trading is a very good idea. If the scheme is well received, we can then put a system in place for a seamless transition from pilot scheme to permanent.”

However, shopkeepers remain divided in their reactions to the proposed openings.

Andrew Bowles, of Brothers Cafe, was undecided whether the café would open on Sundays. He remarked that many shopkeepers would consider Sunday trading but not necessarily open immediately.

Bowles was concerned that it may not be profitable to open for six hours on Sundays, citing that his business operated with five or six employees and required a lot of daily preparation before and after open hours. He added that as there would be no deliveries on Sunday, it might be difficult to have enough stock to sell.

John Partington, owner of Chocology, was positive about the proposed openings.

“It’s a beautiful place to walk around. The market’s full of independent people offering something different – it’s unique.

“Everywhere else is open on a Sunday, it’s time we were dragged into the 21st century.”

However, he asserted that business was “very tough” after Oxford City Council increased his rent by 48% last year.
“The council are not living in my world. [Sunday openings] will be great for us, we’ll definitely be open, and I think we’ll do very well, but I’d love for anyone in the council to come and work in my shop for a day and get a taste of the real world.”

Asked what he thought about other traders deciding not to open he remarked, “I think a lot of people just want a rest once a week.”

Researchers from Oxford University have discovered a common genetic link to the cause of autism.

The finding comes from an international team of scientists, including some from Oxford, who studied DNA from a total of over 12,000 volunteers.

A genetic cause for autism has long been suspected, but finding the genes responsible has proved difficult, until now.

This new research implicates genes involved in the connection and communication between nerve cells during brain development.

“This does seem to fit with what we know from brain scans,” said Tony Monaco, a researcher from Oxford University, who worked on the study.

“People with autism may show different or reduced connectivity between different parts of the brain.”

“Detailed analysis of the genes and how they affect brain development is likely to yield better strategies for diagnosing and treating children with autism,” commented Dr. Raynard Kington, director of the National Institute of Health.

Corpus Christi held its annual tortoise fair with Regent’s Park Emmanuelle and Corpus Christi’s Oldham emerging victorious.

Tortoise races involve the animals being placed inside a ring of lettuce, with the first to reach the ring being the winner. The first race was abandoned due to some tortoises false-starting and a lack of “excitement” during the race.

The second race, however, was much more successful. One of the Corpus tortoises, Oldham, soon made a break for the finish line, while the other tortoises were seemingly more intent on eyeing each other at the start position.

Oldham quickly won the race, with Regent’s Park coming second. However, there was controversy caused when the St Cross tortoise assaulted the Christ Church tortoise.
Both of the tortoises were male, so it is uncertain the exact nature and intent behind the assault.A Christchurch onlooker described the incident as “an emotional rollercoaster-ride”.

This year saw more tortoises competing than in past years, with 8 colleges being represented, and Corpus Christi themselves providing 2 tortoises, Oldham and Foxe, named after the two college founders.

A second race involving 2 human tortoises and one inanimate model tortoise took part. In order to compensate for the significant speed advantage that humans have, the human competitors were forced to eat an entire iceberg lettuce before starting the race. As a result, the Regent’s Park tortoise won the race.

Blue Peter did a feature on the tortoise fair in the past and were back this year to celebrate anniversary.
They were on hand to film the event, and Oldham will race on the programme against Shelley, the Blue Peter tortoise, on the 12th May.

The Regent’s Park tortoise, allegedly celebrating its 100th birthday this year, is “glad” to be back on Blue Peter, having previously appeared on the show in 1975.

JCR President Preet Dhillon commented on the event, “It was very exciting having Blue Peter in Corpus! They filmed a tortoise race in the 1970s and we were thrilled they wanted to come back. The excitement was both from Corpuscles and the kids who came to watch the race. We had fellows come with their kids as well so it was a really good event for Corpus.”

The race was just one of the events making up the tortoise fair – the whole day included a barbeque, Morris Dancers, various bands, stalls and a children’s bouncy castle.

Katie Doig, the Corpus Christi tortoise keeper was “very pleased with how the day was going”, and was glad that so many tortoises could take part in the event.