City girl dies of swine flu; Inquest opens into third victim: Five adults in city hospital s: SWINE FLU: Infection spreading across West Midlands.

Byline: Alison Dayani

AN INQUEST was opening today into the death of a schoolgirl who died at Birmingham Children's Hospital after contracting the swine flu virus.

Birmingham Coroner Aidan Cotter was due to start an investigation into the death of Sameerah Ahmad, who is believed to be the victim and the youngest person yet to die after contracting the H1N1 virus in the UK.

Her death is the third in the country to be connected to swine flu following two patients in Scotland who have died in the past fortnight.

It comes weeks after Birmingham Children's Hospital revealed that two members of staff, including a junior doctor, had contracted swine flu and were sent home from the wards to recover.

Birmingham Children's Hospital spokesman Alan Taman, said the girl had underlying health problems, but was also being treated for swine flu when she died on Friday night.

There are now also five severely ill adults being treated in critical care units across the city for swine flu - two in the high dependency unit at Heartlands Hospital, in Bordesley Green, and three in critical care at City and Sandwell hospitals, in west Birmingham and the Black Country. A further five adults are being treated in isolation in the hospitals for swine flu with less serious symptoms. Infected numbers have continued to soar rapidly in the West Midlands to more than 2,100, of which 588 new cases were con- firmed by the Health Protection Agency(HPA) last night.

An education official revealed the child, who was named locally as Sameerah Ahmad, was not a pupil at Welford Primary School, in Handsworth, which suffered the largest school outbreak in the countryamonth ago and affected around 100 pupils, staff and relatives. But reports have linked her toMayfield Special School, in Lozells, close to Welford. "We can sadly confirm that a child died at Birmingham Children's Hospital on Friday evening," said Dr Helen Carter, public health consultant for NHS West Midlands health authority.

"The child has since tested positive for swine flu but had other serious underlying health conditions. "Our thoughts are with the family of the patients at this very sad time. The West Midlands has seen the highest number of cases of swine flu. It is important to remember that our experience here has been that the vast majority of cases with swine flu aremild." The region is still bearing the brunt of the largest outbreak in the UK with 2,104 confirmed cases and fears there are many more patients that have not presented themselves to doctors.

The total number of con- firmed cases in the UK has now reached 5,937. A 73-year-old man from the Inverclyde area of Scotland died at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley on Saturday night. Jacqui Flemming, aged 38, was the first person in the UK to die after contracting swine flu two weeks ago. Swine flu has become uncontainable in Birminghamwith such large numbers and swine flu directors for the region were told by the Department of Health to change the way the virus was being handled. Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson stressed that many parts of the country were still in the containment phase. If YOU think you may have swine flu, stay at home and contact either your GP or NHS Direct on 0845 4647. You can also check your symptoms at www. nhs.uk

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Reports: Mayfield School, where the girl is believed to have been a pupil.