Fears for 'critically ill' swine flu mother

DOCTORS have grave concerns for a Glasgow woman seriously ill with swine flu who gave birth to a premature baby last week.

The 38-year-old, who gave birth last week, is in intensive care and is understood to have serious underlying health problems, which has led doctors to fear she may not survive.

The development emerged as the number of people with swine flu in the UK rose above the 500 mark yesterday.

The woman, who has not been named, is from Glasgow and was admitted to the city's Southern General Hospital last month. She was transferred to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Renfrewshire where she gave birth to the baby on Monday, 11 weeks prematurely.

The baby is now being cared for at Glasgow's Yorkhill Hospital. It is not thought to have the infection and its condition is described as stable.

However, the mother, whose health is understood to have been poor before she contracted the H1N1 virus, remains extremely ill.

A source said: "The patient has some serious underlying health problems".

The woman's condition was described by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as "critical but stable". A spokeswoman would not comment further but said: "The baby is clinically stable receiving appropriate medical and nursing care."

A 23-year-old nurse who treated the woman at the Southern General Hospital has also caught the bug but is not seriously ill. Scotland has 13 new confirmed cases of Influenza A (H1N1), bringing the total number of cases to 154, with a further 245 possible cases under investigation.

Of the possible cases 167 are in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area where two clusters of the disease have been reported, in Paisley and Glasgow.

Two of the new confirmed cases are in Fife, three in Forth Valley, five in Greater Glasgow and Clyde and three in Highland NHS Boards. One is travel related and 12 are non-travel related.

Ten people confirmed as having the virus are in hospital. Three of those are still in intensive care at Paisley's Royal Alexandra Hospital and three patients are being treated in high dependency units.