Graeme Pacitti, right, is said to have fallen ill after being in contact with Iain Askham, left. Photograph: PA Prime minister says plans in place to fight virus as tests expected to confirm UK's first case of human transmission
- guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 May 2009 10.14 BST
A Scottish man is expected to find out today whether he is the first case of human-to-human transmission of swine flu in Britain as more such cases emerged around the world.
Graeme Pacitti, 24, who came into contact with Iain and Dawn Askham, the Scottish couple who became the first confirmed British cases of the H1N1 virus earlier this week, is a "probable" case, the Scottish government said.
The prime minister, Gordon Brown, today urged people with swine flu symptoms to seek advice and said Britain was well placed to deal with the outbreak.
"There will be more cases," he said on a visit to an NHS Direct call centre in Beckenham, south-east London. "This is happening in every country of the world, but we are better prepared.
"We have preparations in place so that people can get the Tamiflu antiviral drug and can be treated if they get the disease.
"As long as people can seek the information quickly and get the answers and then take the action that is necessary, using NHS Direct, using the local GP, using the internet service that's also available on NHS Direct, then we can help people get the information so that action can be taken quickly enough. We are doing everything we can and will continue to do everything we can to contain this."
Brown said the government was increasing the number of face masks available to the NHS and looking at different vaccines. He added that all the cases in the UK had come from Mexico and were mild.
Pacitti, an NHS clerical worker from Falkirk, was initially cleared but continued to show symptoms. Further tests found low levels of influenza A virus, and the samples were flown to the Health Protection Agency's main laboratories at Colindale in north London to establish whether he has swine flu.
Pacitti, who works at Falkirk Royal Infirmary, has received antiviral drugs and is now in quarantine at his home, along with his mother and other members of his family. Health officials are following up people he has recently been in contact with.
Dr Harry Burns, Scotland's chief medical officer, said Pacitti was "probably more likely than less likely" to have swine flu because of his contact with the couple and the fact that influenza A viruses are rare at this time of year.
Burns said: "My understanding is he is through the worst of it. He has had Tamiflu as a contact."
The German health ministry confirmed that a nurse had been confirmed as the first case of human-to-human swine flu transmission within the country.
The World Health Organisation increased its tally of confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus around the world from 257 to 331.
The number of confirmed cases in the UK has reached eight after doctors diagnosed three new infections in England, the Department of Health said. Two of the cases are in London and one in Newcastle. All are said to be responding well to treatment.
The HPA's laboratories are investigating a further 230 possible cases.
The Askhams believe they caught the swine flu virus on the flight back to Britain from their honeymoon. The couple, who left hospital six days after being admitted, told the Daily Record that five men sitting near them on the Cancún to Birmingham flight had been coughing and sneezing throughout the journey. Pacitti plays football on the same six-a-side team as Askham and fell ill after they went for a team night out at a local pub.
The Scottish health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said: "Obviously the circumstances around this individual do give us cause for concern ‑ the symptoms don't give us cause for concern, but the circumstances give us cause for concern."
But Dr Alan McNally, senior lecturer and influenza diagnostics researcher at Nottingham Trent University, said human-to-human transmission within the UK would not be a significant development.
He said: "I don't think it is any more significant. We know that it is transmitted from human to human, it has happened in other parts of the world and we know it will happen here." But he added: "I know that there will be interest in it because members of the public will see that they don't need to have been to Mexico to get it."
He said the vast majority of the UK's 230 possible cases being investigated are likely to have originated from contact with other infected people.
Last night it emerged that a US security aide who helped arrange Barack Obama's trip to Mexico was suffering from flu-like symptoms, while Canada recorded its first case of person-to-person transmission of the virus, in Nova Scotia.
The outbreak has caused 12 deaths in Mexico and health authorities revised official figures, confirming 300 swine flu cases among 679 people tested so far.
There are now also two confirmed cases in Virginia, a man and a woman who had both travelled to Mexico. It is understood they are recovering well.
The latest confirmed British cases involve a woman in Newcastle upon Tyne and two people in London. All eight confirmed cases contracted the flu in Mexico and have shown relatively mild symptoms after treatment with antiviral drugs.
The sharp rise in suspected cases over the previous 24 hours – from 78 to 230 – may indicate the heightened state of public awareness and alarm as much as a sign of the disease's rapid spread.
EU governments failed last night to agree on pooling medical resources to combat the flu, and rejected French calls for a blanket ban on air travel to Mexico.
The emergency meeting in Luxembourg of health ministers from the 27 countries in the EU agreed to co-ordinate policies and efforts, but indicated this amounted merely to sharing information on monitoring the speed of the virus's spread.
The newly confirmed case in Newcastle is a woman, recently returned from Mexico, who shared a flat with two students.
Newcastle University said it would not close its facilities as a precaution. "This [patient] is not a student or a member of staff," the university said in a circulated email. "Neither of the students [who share the flat] has so far displayed any flu-like symptoms.
"Both students have received the antiviral Tamiflu. They and the university have been advised by the HPA that there is no need for the students to isolate themselves from the community unless they show symptoms."
Health officials in Paignton, where a 12-year-old girl was confirmed as having swine flu, said yesterday that dozens of other people in the area had complained of symptoms.
The girl, who is said to be "improving", is a pupil at Paignton Community and Sports College in Devon. Yesterday the school was shut and 340 pupils and staff issued with Tamiflu.
Dr Sarah Harrison, public health consultant for Torbay Care Trust, said: "We are aware of people who have flu-like symptoms. A number of people in this area are being tested. The numbers are more like dozens than hundreds."
After releasing the latest tally, the HPA said: "At this stage close contacts who should be offered antivirals as a precaution are individuals who have been exposed to a probable or confirmed case within the previous seven days, for longer than one hour, and within a distance of one metre. All cases up to now have been associated with travel to Mexico."
The government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said he believed the UK would see "many more cases" of swine flu as the virus spreads, but that most people would make a good recovery. He described himself as "concerned, but not alarmed" by the decision by the WHO to raise the global alert level to phase five.
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