Patient with swine flu virus dies

A patient who tested positive for swine flu has died at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, health officials have confirmed.

Further investigations will be carried out to identify if the patient had any underlying health problems.

No details have been given about the patient's age, although it is thought she was from Malmesbury in Wiltshire.

Maggie Rea, director of public health for the county, has offered condolences to the family of the woman.

'Robust plan'

She told BBC News: "It's a woman who is a resident of Wiltshire.

"Sadly, we always said we could have deaths from swine flu but it's very rare.

"We've only had one death in Wiltshire and I think it's important to remember every year we do sadly have a small number of deaths from seasonal flu.

"In the county there are around 60 deaths each year.

"We do have a very robust plan. We've had our incident room open in Devizes since April, working with hospitals, GP practices and also schools, where there's been a lot of concern."

Ms Rae also moved to reassure people that "in the vast majority of cases swine flu is not a severe illness and people start to feel better without visiting hospital or their GP".

Twenty-nine people in the UK have now died from swine flu.

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