Three more people in Britain have died after contracting swine flu, taking the number of fatal cases to seven.

Abdullah Patel, 42, believed to be a teacher, and Asmaa Hussain, 9, both from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, and an unnamed nine-year-old from London, all had “serious underlying health problems” before contracting the H1N1 virus, health officials said.

Asmaa had suffered from epilepsy since birth, and Mr Patel is believed to have suffered from lung and kidney problems. Asmaa’s uncle, Ghulam Rasoo, said: “She had been poorly for a long time and had been in and out of hospital before getting the flu for a couple of days.

“She had a fit on Thursday night and we tried to give her mouth-to-mouth until the ambulance came but she died. She got the anti-flu drugs on the day she died but hadn’t started taking them.”

“A normal little girl, she had been playing all day with her brother and sister. If she had swine flu it didn’t seem particularly serious, no cough, no sweating, no nothing.”

NHS Kirklees said: “At this stage, we have no confirmation whether or not swine flu was the cause of death.”

Earlier, health officials in London had announced that the nine-year-old girl had become the second person with the virus to die in the capital after a man aged 19, also from south London, tested positive for the virus after his death last week.

Britain has the highest number of reported cases of swine flu in Europe, with nearly 7,500 confirmed by the end of last week.

The scale of infection has led to health officials abandoning any attempts to contain the virus, with the focus now on treating those infected.

The other four people to die from swine flu in Britain also had underlying health issues which could have made them vulnerable to infection or serious complications of flu.

Jacqui Fleming, 38, of Glasgow, was the first to die after contracting the virus last month, two weeks after her son, Jack, was born 11 weeks prematurely. Jack died later but had not contracted the virus.

The second victim was a man aged 73 from the Inverclyde area of Scotland.

The youngest victim in Britain was six-year-old Sameerah Ahmad, aged 6. She was born with a rare life-threatening disease and died at Birmingham Children’s Hospital after contracting swine flu, although it is unclear if it contributed directly to her death. The 19-year-old man had also been ill previously.

The World Health Organisation said it had recorded 429 swine flu deaths worldwide among 94,512 cases confirmed since the outbreak began in April. The death toll includes 170 in the United States, 119 in Mexico, where the outbreak started, 60 in Argentina and 25 in Canada.

The Health Protection Agency has stopped issuing daily updates on numbers of confirmed cases in Britain, but is due to announce new weekly totals in the next few days.

London is the second worst affected area in Britain, after the West Midlands. On Friday, the capital had more than 1,900 cases.

An NHS London spokesman said: “Once again we wish to take this opportunity to remind the public that for most people this is a minor illness and that they should start to feel better after a few days without needing to go to their GP or A&E.

“However, some people may be more susceptible to the virus. If you have flu-like symptoms it’s important that you talk to your doctor if you are pregnant, very young, over-65 or have long-term conditions such as asthma or diabetes.”

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