LONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - More than two-thirds of British businesses have already suffered temporary staff losses because of H1N1 swine flu and many managers fear they will lose revenue due to the pandemic, according to a survey on Wednesday.
In all, 72 percent of employers reported they had experienced swine flu absenteeism and 38 percent anticipated sales would be hit.
One in five also said they expected to have to close or partially close premises, results from the survey of 429 small and medium-sized companies by law firm Eversheds showed.
The new H1N1 influenza virus has caused the first pandemic of the 21st century and is spreading out of control, according to the World Health Organisation. When the northern hemisphere's autumn weather sets in it is expected to worsen.
Britain has seen one of the highest number of cases, although most people have experienced only mild to moderate symptoms.
The new H1N1 flu affects younger people than seasonal flu, making it a bigger potential threat to the working population. The high number of children catching the virus also means parents often need to take time off work for childcare.
Regular hand-washing is one of the simplest ways to keep the disease at bay and 87 percent of British employers affected by swine flu said they had introduced new sanitation measures.
Clinical trials of an H1N1 vaccine are currently under way and health officials hope mass immunisation programmes, which could start in some countries next month, will help contain the spread of the disease.
Leading flu vaccine makers include Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline , Novartis (NOVN.VX) Baxter (BAX.N), CSL (CSL.AX) and Solvay (SOLB.BR) (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Simon Jessop)
Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health of the ministry, Prof. Dr. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said that the virus spread to 24 out of 33 provinces in Indonesia.
"The cumulative number of people infected by swine flu reaches 930," he said in a statement issued Wednesday evening.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the disease has killed over 1,000 people out of more than 162,000 cases in 168countries. In Indonesia four were killed by the virus so far.
Experts feared that the avian influenza sub-type A/H1N1 virus could combine with the H5N1 virus, which have already existed in the country, and create a new type of virus with the speed of spread similar to the A/H1N1 and the severity equal to the H5N1 virus.
Indonesia was hardest hit by H5N1 virus with fatality of more than 100 people.
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