Swine flu death total rises to four

A 19-year-old man was confirmed today as the first person in London to die after contracting swine flu.

The teenager from south London, who suffered serious underlying health problems, tested positive for the virus following his death on Wednesday.

He is the fourth person with swine flu to die in the UK.

The latest death comes amid warnings that the number of cases could soar to 100,000 a day by the end of next month.

Earlier today the Government's chief medical officer warned the public to avoid panic-buying "counterfeit" anti-swine flu drugs online.

Sir Liam Donaldson, who confirmed yesterday that the UK has moved past the stage of containing the swine flu outbreak and into the "treatment phase", said there was no need for people to resort to the internet to self-medicate.

He said Britain had a massive stockpile of Tamiflu and would be one of the first countries to have access to a vaccine, with the first supplies arriving at the end of next month.

Sir Liam told GMTV: "There's generally a growth in people ordering drugs from the internet worldwide and there's a lot of concern amongst health authorities that people might buy counterfeit drugs.

"I think this is a similar situation – people shouldn't buy Tamiflu from the internet.

"We have got a massive stockpile in this country and everybody can have access to it through the National Health Service."

Sir Liam added he was "surprised" health services controlled the virus for as long as they had. The first case in Britain was recorded in April.

He said: "We have been dealing with it very aggressively so far – we have investigated every case, we've treated their contacts, we've closed schools and all of that has helped slow the spread.

"We are surprised we have been able to run it as long as we have like this. Flu viruses spread extremely quickly so this is very much going as expected."