Flu complacency warning

By Keith Weir

LONDON (Reuters) - British health officials warned on Thursday against complacency over the spread of the new flu virus and defended their policy of school closures after two additional cases brought the total in Britain to 34.

One of the cases was an adult from the east of England who had recently returned from the United States, the Health Protection Agency said.

The other was a pupil at the Dolphin School in London school which had already closed after two other students tested positive for the H1N1 virus last week.

The virus, widely known as swine flu, has killed 42 people in Mexico but all of those infected so far in Britain have had relatively mild symptoms, prompting some media commentators to accuse the government of overstating the risk here.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said there was a balance to strike in managing to the public response to the virus, but added "now the danger is complacency."

He said there was a risk the virus could mutate or re-emerge in a more dangerous form later in the year.

"Politically I'd rather be accused of overhyping something and exaggerating it...than of not being prepared for a pandemic," he told reporters.

Johnson said 13 children were among Britain's tally of confirmed cases, and five schools have shut their doors in an attempt to prevent the flu spreading from infected pupils.