A FORMER Dorset schoolboy is one of five people in Britain who have been confirmed to have swine flu, it has emerged.

Iain Askham, who fell ill along with his bride, Dawn, after honeymooning in Mexico, is responding well to treatment in hospital in Lanarkshire.

The pair were the first two confirmed cases of swine flu in Britain.

Health chiefs in Dorset are monitoring the situation after swine flu scares in two neighbouring counties.

On Wednesday night, the number of confirmed cases nationwide stood at five including a 12-year-old girl in Torbay, Devon, whose school was closed as a precaution. The other two new cases were in adults, in Birmingham and London, who had recently travelled to Mexico.

Tests are awaited on seven people in Wiltshire who are suspected to have the virus. All had travelled to Mexico or had connections with the country.

Meanwhile, the first swine flu death outside Mexico was confirmed by US health officials as a 23-month-old child in Texas.

Iain Askham, 27, studied at Bovington Middle School and the Purbeck School before moving to Falkirk in 2000. He works for Scottish Power.

He had been honeymooning in the Mexican resort of Cancun before returning to the UK on April 21.

He is believed to have felt ill after a night out with family and friends last Thursday.

His wife Dawn, 24, began to feel ill shortly afterwards and both were taken to hospital.

Eight people who were in contact with them have since tested negative for the virus, it was revealed yesterday.

The Department of Health is to distribute leaflets about the virus to all households in the UK next week.

It will also “urgently increase” its stockpiles of surgical face masks, although it said there was no need for the public to wear them.

Professor Neil Ferguson, of the World Health Organisation taskforce on the outbreak, said 40 per cent of people in the UK could be infected if it was hit by a pandemic.

The organisation has raised its alert level to four out of six, signifying a “significant increase in risk of a pandemic”.

The government’s Cobra emergencies committee, involving prime minister Gordon Brown and health secretary Alan Johnson, has met to discuss the issue.