Did the authrotities overreact to swine flu?

An estimated half a million Scots got the virus during the outbreak

On 27 April 2009, swine flu hit Scotland.

Dealing with the outbreak cost Scotland £55m, but the virus turned out to be relatively mild.

One year on our health correspondent Eleanor Bradford looks back and asks, did we overreact?

Swine flu touched down in Scotland in the form of a flight full of holidaymakers from Mexico.

It was first diagnosed in newlyweds Dawn and Ian Askham but in reality it was probably already spreading amongst the contacts of other people on that flight.

In all 88,000 Scots went to their doctor with symptoms and it's estimated half a million Scots got the virus.

Research carried out in London and the West Midlands suggests 1 in 3 children contracted the virus in 'hotspots'.

One such hotspot was the unlikely location of Dunoon.

Despite being largely cut off from the mainland by the Firth of Clyde, swine flu arrived via a bus load of returning Rangers supporters.

Seventeen year old Karen Reid was one of the first to become sick.

Scotland's chief medical officer has said he has no regrets

"We had been joking that maybe I had swine flu, but never thought it was true," she says.

"But I ended up having to get antibiotics because I was really ill and the cough wasn't going away."

Compared to pandemics of the past, the number of people who became severely ill was extremely low.

A total of 1,542 were hospitalised and 69 died. Yet the government spent £55m on dealing with the virus, including the cost of 500,000 unused vaccines.

Scotland's chief medical officer says he has no regrets.

"If a year ago we had know then what we know now, and I had said to you half a million people will get this bug, one to two thousand will be hospitalised and almost 70 will die, but don't worry it's just a wee flu bug, you would have been asking difficult questions," says Harry Burns.

"The fact is we were able to invest money in vaccines, antivirals and intensive care services which saved lives."

'Very fortunate'

At Dunoon's Grammar School, headteacher Stewart Shaw is stoical.

He no longer closes the school when a child becomes ill, but he doesn't think there was an overreaction when the bug first hit.

"We were very fortunate, there were no deaths amongst pupils at the grammar school or in the community in Cowal," he said.

"However, if there had been folks would have been saying that we hadn't reacted well.

"We reacted with the best information that was available at the time, and I think that's true in terms of the government right down to the school."