By SHAUN MILNE
THE MUM of one Scotland’s youngest ever swine flu victims says she is baffled as to how her tot could have caught it.
Elaine Wallace, 36, from Livingston, West Lothian, was left stunned when docs told her son Scott was infected.
The tot – who has just turned two while in quarantine – was diagnosed three days after being tested.
And she fears the only way he might have picked up the infection was on a visit to hospital.
She said: “It’s all a bit of a mystery.”
“The only thing I can think of is that my other son had tonsillitis and had been into hospital, and I was in with a kidney infection, so it could have come through that route.
“It took them from a week past Sunday when he was swabbed until the Wednesday to be diagnosed.
“They said that was because they didn’t have any obvious reason to suspect he would have swine flu.
“We’d taken him to the doctors because he had a rash and thought at first it could have been meningitis.”
“We’ve all been tested and were negative.”
As soon as the diagnosis was made her other two children – seven-year-old twins Ryan and Zoe – were kept off school.
Active
Dad Brian, 41, also stayed off his work at a factory to be safe and the family were given doses of Tamiflu.
Mum Elaine said: “He’s completely fine now. He’s quite an active wee boy and he began feeling better within himself, and even though we were shocked at first when we got the results, seeing him move about and things like that made us feel better about it.
“It makes me feel terrible to think parents were keeping their kids off school because of this, because there was never any chance of them having it.
“The whole thing has been blown out of proportion.
“He was actually much more unwell when he just had normal flu.”
His quarantine was expected to expire this week, and world expert Hugh Pennington, a professor at Aberdeen University, said they may never find out the source.
He said: “It’s not a great surprise that they don’t know where it’s come from, and the same goes for a number of cases across the country.
“We know that some people can be infected without showing any signs or knowing it.
“Children of that age are more susceptible to viruses like the flu, and children in general are the ones that are affected.
“Of course it would be nice to know where the infection came from but it is not always possible.”
