New swine flu case closes nursery

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Family members of the two children affected are understood to be connected

A nursery and a primary school in Greenock are to be closed for a week after two children were confirmed as probable swine flu cases.

A five-year-old boy, who is at Ravenscraig Primary, and a three-year-old attending Ladybird Pre-Five Centre have tested positive for influenza A.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said 23 pupils in the school's primary one class were being treated with Tamiflu.

She added that health officials were at the nursery to provide advice.

Ms Sturgeon said the cases appeared to be connected to a 19-year-old resident of the town who was confirmed with swine flu at the weekend.

The five-year-old boy's 45-year-old mother is also being treated as a probable case, as is a 16-year-old girl who is also from Greenock.

Investigations are being carried out into whether there is any link between the teenage girl and the other three "probable" cases in the town and to trace anyone she has been in contact with, Ms Sturgeon told a media briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

Ms Sturgeon added: "Obviously we are in a fast-moving situation, particularly around the Greenock area.

"I would however like to stress that there remains no reason for people to be alarmed - we are still dealing with small numbers of cases and our focus remains on containment.

"As I said in parliament last week there may come a time over the next number of weeks where we move out of that phase into a mitigation phase but we are not there yet."

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was working with the nursery and taking steps to contact all parents at the nursery and provide appropriate advice.

About 100 children, including 20 babies attend the Ladybird nursery school in Chester Road, which is owned by the charity, Ladybird.

The building sits in the grounds of Earnhill Primary School, which has remained open.

Nicola Sturgeon will hold a briefing on Wednesday afternoon

The older children and staff at the nursery who have had close contact with the case will be offered Tamiflu.

The Scottish Government said the babies and younger children have had no contact with the three-year-old so it was not necessary to offer them the treatment.

Speaking earlier on Wednesday on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme, Ms Sturgeon said another 17 children who attended an after-school club with the five-year-old, and staff there, were also being treated with Tamiflu.

They were also being asked not to return to the after-school club or to their own individual schools for seven days.

Ms Sturgeon added: "I would stress we're still dealing overall with very small numbers and therefore our focus is still on containing the spread of the virus as far as we can.

"That means that when we do identify cases we try to throw a cordon around them to minimise the risk of the infection spreading any further so that's what we are still very focused on."

The health secretary said her advisors had been guided by experiences in England.

She said: "People will be aware that there have already been a number of school-based cases of swine flu in England and the early evidence from there is that where early action is taken, the spread of the infection can be disrupted and stopped.

Reducing risk

"I appreciate that these decisions cause inconvenience to parents and I would ask parents for their understanding and forbearance.

"We are doing this to try to cut down the risk of any other children contracting the virus."

Alice Curran, whose five-year-old grandson is a pupil at the nursery, said she had only found out it was closed when she arrived with him on Wednesday morning.

She added: "There was one doctor on the door who explained there was one child who they thought had possible contact, and he referred me inside to another doctor who went through it in more detail and gave me the Tamiflu."

An Inverclyde Council statement said: "Staff have been working to contact all the parents of primary one children to arrange for them to pick up courses of Tamiflu.

"The school will remain closed for seven days as a precaution.

"All advice is being acted upon and we will continue to liaise closely with health officials."

There are currently five confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus in Scotland, and a number of probable cases are under investigation.

Ms Sturgeon said there was a "high probability" that more cases would be confirmed as positive.

Three further patients under investigation in England were confirmed as having swine flu on Wednesday, bringing the current total number of confirmed UK cases to 71.