GUERNSEY would be especially badly affected by a swine flu pandemic, according to the managing director of a local disaster control company.

Dick Bush, of MSD International, which advises businesses across the UK as well as some States of Guernsey departments, said the island could suffer a particularly heavy blow because of its isolation and reliance on imports and air travel.

He also thought swine flu could prove more dangerous than bird flu.

‘If you have a lot of people ill on an island, potentially hundreds or thousands, you have serious problems,’ he said.

Mr Bush (pictured), who spent 44 years with St John Ambulance and became its Bailiwick president, said he did not speak for the Health and Social Services Department, which he said already had a good pandemic contingency plan.

‘But there are no adjacent hospitals in next-door counties and the army won’t set up treatment centres here. They are already deployed.’

He said food and fuel imports could be affected.

‘And on a food container ship, a virus could last eight days or so – you might need to start quarantining food.’

He said the virus was spreading incredibly fast.