Last updated at 4:35 PM on 27th April 2009
A woman in Britain is being treated for suspected swine flu in what would be the first case of the deadly virus in the UK.
The Canadian, who has not been named, is being looked after at an undisclosed hospital in Manchester.
She is believed to have been visiting friends in Sale when she fell ill. It is not known if she had recently visited Mexico, where 103 people have died from the deadly virus.
An NHS North West spokeswoman said: 'We are aware that an overseas visitor to the Sale area is being tested for possible swine flu.
'The person concerned has been taken to hospital for further tests, in keeping with recommendations, and purely as a precaution.'
Two Britons were also being tested for the disease in Scotland today after flying in from Mexico last week with flu-like symptoms.
Safety first: Aisha Taylor holds her coat over her face after flying into Gatwick Airport from Mexico City today. A BBC cameraman also took precautions
Alan Johnson told the Commons this afternoon that 25 possible cases had been reported but only these three were currently undergoing further specialist tests.
Eight have tested negative for the virus while the remaining 14 were being investigated but were sufficiently well to be 'managed in the community', the Health Secretary said.
The new case emerged after a Spanish student was the first confirmed European victim after tests proved he had been infected following a recent trip to Mexico.
Another 1,614 people are sick in Mexico and there have already been confirmed cases in the U.S. and Canada.
The World Health Organisation admitted it was 'very concerned' this afternoon after the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. shot up from 20 to 40.
President Obama tried to reassure people. 'This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert. but it is not a cause for alarm,' he said.
There are other suspected cases in France, Brazil, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Israel, where officials were calling it 'Mexico flu' because pork is not Kosher.
The Health Protection Agency and the Government's chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson have both warned the virus spreading here is almost inevitable.
'Hopefully, if we identify those early and treat people and their contacts, we might be able to reduce the spread,' Sir Liam said.
He stressed that the UK was well-prepared with large stockpiles of anti-viral drugs in place.
Spreading: Medical staff wearing masks are seen at 'La Fe' Hospital in Valencia, Spain, where a student was confirmed as suffering from the swine flu virus
Results on the two travellers in Scotland are expected sometime today but so far they are not 'particularly unwell', Scotland's Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said.
'We are doing everything we can at this stage to ensure that the chance of any infection, should it prove to be the case, is minimised,' she added.
All 22 people who had come into contact with the pair since their return have been issued with anti-viral drugs and are being closely monitored.
Scotland was forced to postpone a major exercise based on a flu pandemic due to the danger they might need to battle a real one.
Spanish officials said there were another 20 suspected cases as well as the young man confirmed to have the virus.
He was responding well to treatment and was not in a serious condition, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said this morning.
Intimidating: Mexican solders in surgical face masks on Sunday
Higher powers: For the first time in 300 years, a Lord of Health icon was brought out from storage and paraded in Mexico City's central plaza
Governments worldwide are now battling to contain public panic about a pandemic. Health Secretary Alan Johnson has warned the UK is on 'constant alert'.
Officials from the Department of Health, Home Office and Foreign Office were meeting this morning under the emergency Cobra system for the second time in 24 hours.
So far, they have not advised against travel abroad but the European Union this morning urged people to avoid going to the U.S. or Mexico.
People should not go to those areas unless it was 'very urgent for them', health chief Androulla Vassilou said.
Any disruption to foreign travel could prove disastrous for the British travel industry, which is already battling falling demand sparked by the recession.
Shares in airlines and travel firms plunged today as stock markets across the globe dipped because of the outbreak.
There are fears a pandemic could cost trillions to the world economy, which is already in its worse crisis since the Second World War.
Precaution: Passengers arriving at Barcelona Airport, above and below right, wore face masks to avoid infection. Spanish police, below left, did the same
The World Health Organization has described the virus as a 'public health emergency of international concern' and has activated its 24 hour 'war room' command centre.
WHO experts will meet in Geneva tomorrow to discuss raising its alert level, which is currently at Phase 3, three short of a full-scale global pandemic.
Spokesman Peter Corgingley said today: 'These are early days. It's quite clear that there is a potential for this virus to become a pandemic and threaten globally.
'But we honestly don't know. We don't know enough yet about how this virus operates. More work needs to be done.'
Public health experts from all EU countries were summoned to an urgent summit this afternoon, with a meeting of health ministers scheduled for Thursday.
In the UK, a British Airways worker taken to hospital with flu-like symptoms after returning from Mexico City was yesterday found not to be suffering from the virus.
And this morning another Briton, Chris Clarke from Northamptonshire, was also told his tests were negative. 'Clearly that is very good news,' he said.
The main focus is now on the two people in Scotland, who are being monitored at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie, Lanarkshire.
GPs in parts of London have been issued with face masks to try and avoid further infection.
Eerie: A football match in Mexico City was played to an empty stadium due to fears the virus could spread among spectators
Worried: Mexicans in protective masks pray at the Basilica de Guadalupe
Mexico City went into virtual lockdown yesterday as the death toll increased. Mass was said in shuttered cathedrals and football teams played to empty stadiums
Most people stayed at home, with the few who did venture onto the streets wearing surgical masks to avoid infection.
One television variety show resorted to using cardboard cutouts to fill the seats in the audience.
And for the first time in 300 years, the Cathedral in the main plaza pulled an icon of the Lord of Health from storage, and worshippers placed it on the principal altar.
Today, there were fears cases could multiply as people returned to work. Employers were ordered to isolate anyone showing suspicious symptoms as a precaution.
In the U.S., where 20 cases have been confirmed, officials declared a public health emergency and the public were advised to buy painters' masks to protect themselves.
Among those infected are a group of eight schoolchildren from New York who recently returned from a trip to Mexico.
'We're preparing in an environment where we really don't know ultimately what the size or seriousness of this outbreak is going to be,' Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
'It’s like what we do when a hurricane is approaching the US,' she said. 'We’re leaning forward.'
Six from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia have also had swine flu confirmed.
In New Zealand, ten pupils from an Auckland school party that had returned from Mexico were being treated for flu symptoms in what authorites said was a likely case.
Meanwhile in northern France, two people returning from Mexico were being tested. Three cases in Spain and another one in Israel were also being investigated.
Russia has curbed meat exports from Mexico and some U.S. states - even though experts say there is no chance of getting the disease from pork.
'We are counting down to a pandemic,' said Guan Yi, a virology professor at the University of Hong Kong who helped trace the deadly outbreak of SARS.
'I think the spread of this virus in humans cannot possibly be contained within a short time. There are already cases in almost every region. The picture is changing every moment.'
There are concerns the NHS would be under untold pressure if the virus spread to Britain and face criticism for failing to be prepared for a crisis.
One expert said it had the power to kill 1.2million in the UK alone.
British holidaymakers wearing face masks were held up for almost an hour of tests when they touched down at Heathrow Airport yesterday on a flight from Mexico.
But others flying in to Manchester this morning said they had not been put through any checks either leaving Mexico or on arrival in the UK.
Elizabeth Lacey, 24, said: 'There were no checks flying out. We were a bit concerned about that. There were no checks, we came through and no one asked anything.'
Marie Thompson, from Gateshead, added: 'It was a bit scary, really. The airport in Cancun was full of people wearing masks. If you think back to the Sars episode in China, it was like that.'
At Gatwick Airport, doctors were boarding planes from Mexico as they arrived to ask if any passengers felt unwell.
Trevor Cox, from Dover, said: 'I thought we might have problems this end with a screening process, but a doctor just came on board and asked if anyone was feeling ill or experiencing diarrhoea, then basically left it up to passengers. I think one or two people came forward.'
Cobra meetings - named for the 'Cabinet Office Briefing Room A' where the meetings are generally held - are meetings held in response to national crisis, and were recently held after the London bombings and September 11.
The show must go on: Promoters at the San Marcos Fair in Aguascalientes
Precaution: A taxi driver and his customer in Mexico city wear masks
Mr Johnson promised that all travellers returning from Mexico with flu-like symptoms would be seen very quickly.
The Health Secretary said there were large stockpiles of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, which has proved to be effective against the new strain in Mexico.
'We have got a whole range of measures in place. We have a stockpile of the drugs and we have an agreement with a manufacturer so as soon as the scientists can find a vaccine, they can produce it.'
He added: 'If you have flu-like symptoms, don't go to your GP but stay at home and call NHS Direct. The whole point about these kinds of epidemics is you don't want to spread them - and you spread them by going out and mixing with other people.'
Experts say the swine flu is worse than the previous bird flu outbreaks, which have killed more than 250 people in 15 countries, because it appears to pass from human to human.
Bird flu only ever passed from a bird to a human - limiting its potential to kill.
The new strain is a mixture of various swine, human and bird viruses, making it even more potent to the human body which is used to dealing only with human strains of flu.
Dr Alan Hay, director of the World Influenza centre in London, said: 'It looks pretty ominous, one has to say. It's difficult to look on the bright side at the moment.'
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