A NINE-YEAR-OLD girl with underlying health problems has died after contracting swine flu, a hospital said last night.

It is not yet known whether swine flu contributed to her death and no further details are available, a Birmingham Children’s Hospital spokesman said.

It is understood the young girl died in the past few days.

As news of the death emerged, the Department of Health announced a big jump in the number of patients in England confirmed with swine flu – up 1,604 since Friday, taking the UK total so far to 5,937.

The child is the third patient with the virus to die in the UK.

A 73-year-old man from the Inverclyde area died at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland, on Saturday night. The unnamed man, who had serious underlying health conditions, had been treated in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit for the past 15 days.

The first UK fatality, Jacqui Flemming, 38, who had just given birth prematurely, died two weeks ago at the same hospital. She also had other health problems.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, head of the British Medical Association (BMA), said yesterday the public can rely upon doctors to “step up to the mark” as swine flu spreads.

He said flu plans were currently working quite well across the UK.

Some 366 retired GPs have joined a BMA register, saying that they are willing to treat patients if the flu pandemic eventually reaches crisis point.