Update 2: Five new swine flu cases - three in Gharb

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Two men and a woman have tested positive for the A (H1N1) swine flu virus in Gozo, raising concern of a clustered outbreak.

The three had attended the feast in the village along with a teenage girl who was confirmed as having the disease yesterday, Health Department officials said. They were the first cases of local transmission.

A 32 year old woman from Sliema and a 16 year old boy from Naxxar have also been confirmed as having the virus. The woman is the wife of a man confirmed as having swine flu last week after having been abroad, while the boy recently returned from the UK.

That raises to 24 the number of confirmed cases with another two suspected.

Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea said medical surveillance had been stepped up in Gharb. The new cases were identified when the authorities traced the movements of the teenage girl, who herself had not been abroad.

He said the criteria for testing people having symptoms had been widened. All the patients are being treated at home.

The cases being treated as 'suspected' are a 15-year-old boy from Fgura and a 31-year-old man from Msida.