Ref. 28006-105POP CONCERTS could be one of the first unlikely victims of a major outbreak of flu.

Football matches and other big events could also fall foul of the bug during the next flu pandemic, under plans being considered by Government.

So music fans could be left hoping flu doesn't strike just when they've got tickets for the latest concert or festival while according to Swindon Town's physio Dick Mackey football fans everywhere might be hoping for the outbreak during the close season.

Mr Mackey said if the flu pandemic hit at the normal time of year it would get clubs at the busy time, cancelling games over Christmas. "I suppose football fans would hope this would happen between May and August," he joked.

"But it would be sensible. It is not so bad for us but you get 45,000 people together in the Premier League."

But he said the players would not be given the chance to stay at home relaxing, even if games were cancelled.

"In the hopefully unlikely event they would have to carry on training," he said. "Hopefully we'd keep them fit and ready to play when it was over."

The Government is putting together a UK Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan after the World Health Organisation warned that a flu pandemic was inevitable.

As well as looking at antiviral drugs and vaccinations, the Government is considering confining people to their homes to stop the spread of the virus.

A spokesperson for the department of health said: "We are in the middle of revising our plans for how we would respond to a flu pandemic. It is not finalised yet."

But she confirmed that the department was looking at measures such as stopping people gathering in large numbers.

"They are all areas we are looking at," she added.

"We are looking at vaccines and anti-virals as well as public health measures which would include large numbers of people gathering in one place."

The Government's contingency plan will probably be published in the spring.

Chris Birdsall, spokes-man for the Great Western Hospital, said that a lot of hospital staff were immunised against flu so that they could continue working.

In the event of a pandemic not everyone would need hospital treatment but if the hospital had huge numbers of people coming in they would have to prioritise.

Millions could die if bug strikes

There were three flu pandemics in the last century. The first, dubbed Spanish flu, in 1918 killed up to 50m across the world, including 228,000 in the UK.

Asian flu followed in 1957, claiming a million victims and Hong Kong flu struck in 1968, again killing a million.

A flu pandemic occurs when a new flu virus appears against which the human population has no immunity, resulting in several, simultaneous epidemics worldwide with enormous numbers of deaths and illness.

The increase in global transport and communications, as well as urbanisation and overcrowded conditions, mean epidemics because of the new flu virus are likely to quickly take hold around the world.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta, USA, predicts that a pandemic today is likely to result in between two and 7.4 million deaths globally.

Isabel Field