HASLEMERE will be at the epicentre of a “shocking revelation” when BBC Four screens Contagion! and the UK learns just how deadly a flu pandemic could be, later this month.
The town was selected as an ideal small close-knit community to predict how swiftly an outbreak of a deadly contagious virus could spread now nationwide, after ‘Patient Zero,’ TV presenter and mathematician Dr Hannah Fry, walked its streets.
Hannah and emergency medic Dr Javid Abdelmoneim will be fronting the ground-breaking citizen scientific experiment when it is screened at 9pm, on Thursday, March 22.
It has been billed as a ‘shocking revelation’.
To take part in the ‘Haslemere outbreak’ study, residents downloaded an app on their smartphones which went live for 72 hours, at 12am on October 12.
The app did not identify participants, but tracked and stored their location movements to find out if they had been infected by Hannah or ‘carriers’ she had come into contact with.
App users turned out in force at Haslemere Museum at the conclusion of the study on October 15 for a filmed event to mark the end of the study.
But they were sworn to secrecy on how infectious the town had turned out to be.
BBC pandemic executive producer Danielle Peck said: “Haslemere was the starting point for the outbreak and the computer simulation will show how it could spread from one place to the rest of the country.
“Haslemere can be justifiably proud it contributed to something quite special.”
The information collected from the app both in the town study and a wider national project based on the app, could inform public health policy and help save lives during the next pandemic.
Viewers will discover if enough people downloaded the app nationwide to allow a team of mathematicians from the University of Cambridge to create a simulation of how a deadly flu virus could spread across the UK – predicting how many of us would be infected and how many might die.
The programme will commemorate 100 years since the deadly Spanish Flu pandemic killed millions worldwide.
Hannah said: “A hundred years ago the Spanish flu killed up to 100 million people and since then three other pandemics have swept through the globe.
“To try and stop that from happening again, I’m part of this huge citizen science experiment bringing together BBC4, Cambridge University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. There’s a difference between seasonal flu, which we can vaccinate against and prepare for, and pandemic flu.
“A pandemic happens when a flu virus jumps from animals into humans. No one will have immunity to the new strain so it quickly spreads around the world.
“It’s a case of when, not if, the next flu pandemic will hit. And when it comes it will be serious.
“The UK government predicts 50 per cent of people could be affected, with up to 750,000 fatalities.”
Town councillor Nikki Barton, who took part in the Haslemere outbreak, said: “Contagion! was a very interesting, cutting edge experiment. It was exciting Haslemere was chosen.
“Modelling a pandemic will hopefully lead to the development of a vital tool to help communities across the globe manage the very real future threat of the spread of a potentially deadly virus like this.”