Seventh swine flu patient dies

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A 52-year-old man has become the seventh person to die in Scotland after suffering from swine flu.

The man, who has not been named, died at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital on Wednesday night.

The Scottish Government said he had "significant" underlying health problems and that no further details would be released about him.

The news comes as Sharon Pentleton, who was treated for swine flu in Sweden, was discharged from hospital.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said Ms Pentleton had been released from Crosshouse Hospital where she had gone for treatment following her return from Sweden.

The pregnant 26-year-old was taken to a hospital in Stockholm last month after no beds were available in Britain for the procedure she needed.

The rare form of treatment involved circulating her blood outside her body and adding oxygen to it artificially.

'Slight increase'

Ms Sturgeon expressed her sympathy for the patient who had died in Edinburgh and stressed the virus remained mild in most cases.

She said: "As we have seen in previous cases, this patient was suffering from underlying health conditions and his death should not cause alarm among the general population.

"Fortunately in the vast majority of cases, most people have fairly mild symptoms and make a full recovery within a week."

The latest figures show the number of people contracting the condition in Scotland increased slightly on last week.

Health Protection Scotland estimates that there are currently about 3,300 people who have contracted swine flu in the past seven days.

Ms Sturgeon added: "Today's figures show that overall levels of illness which may be due to H1N1 remain similar to last week with only a slight increase in the number of people consulting their GP with flu-like symptoms, and a slight increase in the number of overall estimated cases.

"Compared to last week there has been a decrease in consultation rates for the 0 to 64 year age groups."