Nine-year-old girl dies after contracting swine flu » Health » 24dash.com

A nine-year-old girl with underlying health problems has died after contracting swine flu, a hospital said today.

It is not yet known whether swine flu contributed to her death and no further details are available, a Birmingham Children's Hospital spokesman said.

It is understood the young girl died in the past few days.

As news of the death emerged, the Department of Health announced a big jump in the number of patients in England confirmed with swine flu - up 1,604 since Friday, taking the UK total so far to 5,937.

The child is the third patient with the virus to die in the UK.

A 73-year-old man from the Inverclyde area died at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland, on Saturday night.

The unnamed man, who had serious underlying health conditions, had been treated in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit for the past 15 days.

The first UK fatality, Jacqui Flemming, 38, who had just given birth prematurely, died two weeks ago at the same hospital. She also had other health problems.

Earlier today, Dr Hamish Meldrum, head of the British Medical Association (BMA), said the public can rely upon doctors to "step up to the mark" as swine flu spreads.

He said flu plans were currently working quite well across the UK, apart from in some areas where NHS trusts thought they could "do better" by departing from national guidance.

Some 366 retired GPs have joined a BMA register, saying they are willing to treat patients if the flu pandemic reaches crisis point.

Dr Meldrum told doctors attending the BMA conference in Liverpool: "As yet, we haven't seen how well the UK will respond to the effects of a full-blown pandemic, but what I can say and where I can reassure the public is that, whatever the crisis, you can rely on the doctors of the UK to step up to the mark."

Elsewhere, six revellers were sent home from the Glastonbury festival over the weekend with suspected swine flu and three or four ball boys and girls suffering from a "flu-like illness" were asked to stay away from the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

In a statement, Dr Helen Carter, public health consultant at NHS West Midlands, said: "Our thoughts are with the family of the patient at this very sad time.

"The family has asked for the patient's identity to be kept private and we will not be releasing any further details.

"We ask that you respect the family's privacy at this difficult time.

"The West Midlands has seen the highest number of cases of swine flu.

"It is important to remember that our experience here has been that the vast majority of cases with swine flu are mild.

"I would like to urge everyone that there are some simple steps that the public can take to reduce their chances of catching flu."

The West Midlands has been declared a hotspot for the disease, with 2,104 confirmed cases so far - more than a third of the UK's total and more than two-fifths of all the cases in England.

Since Friday, 1,604 cases have been confirmed in England, taking the country's total to 4,968 and the UK's total so far to 5,937.

Last week health officials said the West Midlands, along with London which has 1,564 confirmed cases so far, would adopt a policy of outbreak management, with swine flu cases being clinically diagnosed rather than being confirmed by laboratory results.

The new policy means swabbing will take place only for a small number of cases to keep track of the strength of the virus.

Doctors will also use the drug Tamiflu more selectively, targeting only people with symptoms.

The drug is unlikely to be handed out to everyone who has come into contact with a swine flu sufferer as a precaution.

Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson stressed that many parts of the country were still in the containment phase.

But he warned there could be "tens of thousands of cases" of swine flu each week by the autumn because the virus is more likely to thrive in the colder months.

Sir Liam said: "We still think we are heading for the largest surge of cases in the autumn and winter."

A NHS West Midlands spokeswoman said: "We can sadly confirm that a child died at Birmingham Children's Hospital on Friday evening.

"The child has since tested positive for swine flu but had other serious underlying health conditions."

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the BMA, said: "The fact is that any kind of flu can kill people of any age.

"Flu can kill even completely healthy people if they get pneumonia but, if they have got other health problems, they are more likely to get complications.

"Most of the people with swine flu have been saved. There will be occasional tragedies and, of course, every death is a tragedy.

"But it's important that people do not panic. It is expected that there will be deaths."

She said the Health Protection Agency (HPA) is watching closely to work out the rate and type of complications from swine flu.

"As we get more and more data, we can start to assess exactly the kind of complications and we may start to be able to identify groups at higher risk.

"This will help us in the future when we have a vaccine - to be able to vaccinate the people at highest risk."

Dr Nathanson said experts were being "very, very fastidious" at chasing down cases and recording data that was being used to inform the response to the pandemic.

A spokesman for NHS West Midlands said the child had "other serious underlying health conditions" and tested positive for swine flu following her death.

She declined to comment on the exact cause of death.

A spokesman for Birmingham City Council refused to comment.