Suspected British Cases of Swine Flu

Swine flu tests were being carried out on 23 people across Scotland yesterday as Britain's first confirmed victims of the virus recovered in hospital. Nine people who have been in close contact with newlyweds Iain and Dawn Askham are among those undergoing tests.

Another 14 people with travel links to Mexico or affected parts of the United States have also shown symptoms of swine flu and are being tested, Scotland's health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said.

The cases came from several health board areas - Greater Glasgow, Lothians, Grampian, Tayside and Lanarkshire. Their symptoms were described as mild.

The chief medical officer for Wales, Tony Jewell, said there were eight suspected cases under investigation in the country and all were linked to travel in Mexico.

Wiltshire primary care trust confirmed seven people from the county were being tested at a Health Protection Agency facility in Bristol.

Sturgeon said: "What I would stress is that their symptoms are at present described as mild. These people are also undergoing tests. I would stress that these are not confirmed cases."

She added that a passenger on the same flight used by the Askhams to fly home from the Mexican resort of Cancún last Tuesday had also shown mild flu symptoms in England, and was also being tested.

Dr Harry Burns, Scotland's chief medical officer, indicated that most of those extra cases involved people aged between 25 and 40, in common with the large majority of the victims in Mexico.

It is understood, however, that one of nine people with symptoms within the Askhams' "contact group" is a five-year-old child and may include colleagues of Dawn Askham at a branch of Boots in Polmont, where she worked as a dispensing assistant but had no direct contact with customers.