This may have been something to do with this, maybe not. According to British press today the UK is already preparing to prevent the outbreak of this
killer flu taking the lives of thousands. I don't think this is related at all but you never know.
KILLER FLU
FEAR
DRAMATIC plans are being drawn up to stop a flu outbreak killing thousands.
A Government contingency plan includes forcing people to stay at home to stop the spread of the disease.
All football matches and pop concerts could be banned and quarantine centres set up to stop people travelling abroad with the disease. Experts fear
avian flu, which has killed 32 people in south east Asia, could mutate and become highly infectious. It can only be passed to humans by infected birds
at the moment.

Anyway it looks like it's being taken seriously in the UK. No one should ever take the Mirror at its word but there is also a report about this on
the BBC, although I see no article yet. You can see the story on the video/audio section though, or the news channel if you have it. No doubt it's
in other British news sources but I haven't bothered to look, look into it yourself if you want.
Anyway, I don't know how relavent this is to what you're looking into but I thought you might want to see anyway. I figured there might have been
some confusion...