Three more cases of swine flu

A 12-year-old girl from Torbay, Cornwall, and adults in Birmingham and London have the virus.

Mr Brown confirmed the latest cases during Prime Minister's questions in the House of Commons today.

The school the girl attends in Torbay has been shut and all pupils given the antiviral drug Tamiflu, he told MPs.

The Prime Minister said the other two new cases were adults, one from Birmingham and one from London. All three had recently travelled to Mexico.

All three had mild symptoms and were responding well to treatment.

Mr Brown said: "I believe we are taking the preparations that are necessary and the precautions to prevent further incidents of the disease in this country.

"I can confirm that we have enhanced airport checks and that we are advising people not to travel to Mexico unless necessary. We will continue to review that position.

"We have decided to build up stocks of anti-viral drugs and we are ordering a great deal more face masks and we'll be sending out public information to all citizens of the country.

"By Tuesday next week there'll be an information leaflet available for every family.

"The World Health Organisation says we are one of the best prepared countries, we intend to keep it that way and do everything in our power to make sure people are safe from this worldwide problem."

Meanwhile, tests on several people in Scotland feared to have the virus have proved negative.

The Prime Minister also confirmed the UK has placed an order for a further 15 million courses of anti-viral drugs to treat the virus. This will take Britain's stockpile of drugs to 50 million.

The Government has also ordered several million face-masks to protect health workers in the event of a pandemic.

A 23-month old child from Texas became the first person to die of swine flu outside Mexico, the US government said this morning.

Have you recently returned from Mexico or have you been tested for swine flu? Call the Northern Echo newsdesk on 01325-505065