In total, there have now been 77 confirmed cases of Swine Flu in the UK, 72 in England and 5 in Scotland.

Human to human transmission has been confirmed in the UK but there is not yet any evidence of sustained person to person transmission – that is to say, confirmed cases in the community have no obvious link to each other.

Internationally, excluding UK there have been 6426 confirmed cases in 33 countries, and a total of 65 deaths, predominantly in Mexico.

The UK government has signed a deal to secure up to 90m doses of H1N1 flu (Swine Flu) vaccine by December. GlaxoSmithKline will begin production as soon as possible.

This acquisition will speed up access to the vaccine which will be available regardless of whether a pandemic is officially declared. Agreements were already in place to ensure two doses of vaccine for everyone in the UK.

The government has also secured 50million doses of Tamiflu and the alternative antiviral drug Relenza. Enough antivirals to cover 80% of the population will be made available in the event of escalation of the pandemic. Warnings have been issued to the general public about the sale of counterfeit Tamiflu on the internet.