Inquest opens into girl's death from swine flu

An inquest has been opened into the death of a nine-year-old girl who died in hospital last week after contracting swine flu.

Sameerah Ahmad died at Birmingham Children's Hospital on Friday, it was announced yesterday.

She became the third person in the UK to die after contracting the H1N1 virus following the death of a pensioner and mother in Scotland earlier this month.

It is still not known whether her death was caused by swine flu, with NHS West Midlands claiming she had other serious underlying problems.

The inquest into the nine-year-old girl's death began at Birmingham coroners' court earlier today.

During the weekend, a 73-year-old man from the Inverclyde area in Scotland died at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley from the virus.

He too had been suffering with "serious underlying health conditions" and had been in the hospital's intensive care unit for 15 days.

The first UK victim, Jacqueline Fleming, 38, had also suffered from health complications stemming from the premature birth of her baby son when she died in Scotland earlier this month.

There are now almost 6,000 confirmed cases of swine flu across the UK.

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