Four people in Scotland dies of swine flu in 24 hours

A teenage boy is among four people with swine flu to have died in the last 24 hours in Scotland, it has been announced.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said all had significant underlying health problems.

The four were a 16-year-old boy, a 77-year-old man, a woman, 54, from Glasgow and a 47-year-old woman from Fife.

The deaths bring the total in Scotland to 21 since the outbreak began in spring.

Ms Sturgeon said: "It is with sadness and regret that I have to report an additional four deaths from swine flu in the last 24 hours."

News of the deaths come a day after the launch of a mass vaccination programme in the UK for swine flu.

Figures showed the number of people with swine flu increased to 14,650 last week. There were 75 people in hospital today with the H1N1 virus, 15 of them in intensive care.

Ms Sturgeon said 108 people were hospitalised last week - up from 64 the previous week. She said: "The NHS continues to cope and continues to cope well. Obviously, that kind of increase in hospitalised cases does put pressure on the National Health Service."

The details emerged as the NHS gears up for the winter flu season. New revised "worst case" assumptions for the UK were published today to take into account better information on the effect of the virus.

Despite the spate of deaths, the number of people estimated to catch the virus over the season had dropped from 30% to 12% - which is about 600,000 Scots.