UK monitoring swine flu outbreak
Britain is on "constant alert" over the threat of deadly swine flu spreading from Mexico, Health Secretary Alan Johnson has said.
Meanwhile, two people were admitted to a Scottish hospital after returning from Mexico with flu-like symptoms, according to Scotland's health secretary Nicola Sturgeon.
Ms Sturgeon stressed that the pair were not very ill but were in isolation at Monklands Hospital, Airdrie, Lanarkshire.
Ms Sturgeon said the pair had not been in an area affected by recent outbreaks of swine influenza.
She said: "The patients have displayed mild flu-like symptoms and their current condition is not causing concern."
The announcement came as the UK was on alert to look for unusual flu cases after a deadly outbreak. More than 80 people have died of pneumonia in Mexico after contracting a flu-like virus and many others - including children in a New York school - have fallen ill in the US and Mexico.
Mr Johnson confirmed that a man taken to hospital after arriving at Heathrow on a flight from Mexico City did not have the H1N1 strain of the virus, which has been blamed for more than 80 deaths in the central American country.
The Health Secretary told BBC1's The Politics Show he had no doubt that there would be more cases of travellers coming into the UK with flu-like symptoms and promised that they will be examined "very, very quickly" by the NHS. But he said that, so far, no cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Britain or the rest of Europe.
The NHS has a stockpile of more than £500 million worth of the Tamiflu anti-viral drug which has proved effective on patients in Mexico, and scientists are working on developing a vaccine against the new strain, said Mr Johnson.
The World Health Organisation rated Britain as one of the two countries best prepared for an outbreak, alongside France.
