Flu outbreak in Britain "contained"

LONDON (Reuters) - The spread of the new flu strain has been contained in Britain but there will be more confirmed cases, Health Secretary Alan Johnson said on Sunday.

Health officials had to be ready for a more serious wave of the new H1N1 virus later in the year, he warned.

The World Health Organisation says the flu has not spread in a sustained way outside North America but still warns the unpredictable virus is likely to become a pandemic.

"Pandemic just describes the geographic spread, it doesn't describe the severity. So far because we've managed to get to people to isolate it ... I think it is contained," Johnson told BBC TV.

"There will be more cases, there's 15 confirmed at the moment. That will go up, there's absolutely no doubt about that, but at the moment all the evidence is that we can confine, contain it and treat it effectively."

Health officials later said three more people had tested positive for the flu, a man in Scotland and two schoolchildren from the London area.

One of the children had recently returned from the United States and the other had been in close contact with a person who had been in Mexico. Another 716 suspected cases are being investigated, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said.

"At this stage, with only a small number of cases of human to human transmission in the UK, this does not yet represent sustained human to human transmission," the HPA said in a statement.

Officials in Mexico said the outbreak there appeared to be easing and the number of suspected deaths from the flu has been scaled back.

Johnson warned the virus could return in a more virulent form.

"Our evidence from all previous pandemics is that you get two phases. You get a first wave which is often very mild and then you get a much more serious wave that comes along in the autumn and the winter," he said.

"So we have to not just deal with this outbreak now, but prepare, perhaps, for a second phase further down the line."

Health officials said so far the majority of British patients had suffered mild symptoms and had responded well to antiviral treatment.

The government has been stockpiling anti-viral doses and has launched "Catch it, Bin it, Kill it!" adverts, urging people to cover coughs and sneezes with tissues, throw them away and then wash their hands.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Sophie Hares)