A woman patient in her 50s, who tested positive for swine flu, has died at Swindon's Great Western Hospital.

The woman is thought to be from Malmesbury and was in her 50s. She is believed to have recently visited the United States.

Wiltshire Primary Care Trust released a statement saying tests would be carried out to establish the exact cause of death and whether she had any other conditions apart from swine flu.

Sue Rowley, director of nursing and midwifery at the Great Western Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I speak for all trust staff, including those who provided direct care for the patient, when I say that the thoughts of all of us are with the family at this time.”

And Maggie Rea, Director of Public Health for Wiltshire, said: "We offer our sincere condolences to the family at this sad time, and will remain in touch with them through their local family doctor to keep them informed and to provide all the support we can.

"Sadly, we always said we could have deaths from swine flu but it's very rare.

"We've only had one death in Wiltshire and I think it's important to remember every year we do sadly have a small number of deaths from seasonal flu.

"In the county there are around 60 deaths each year.

"We've had our incident room open in Devizes since April, working with hospitals, GP practices and also schools, where there's been a lot of concern."

Mrs Rae reassured people that "in the vast majority of cases swine flu is not a severe illness and people start to feel better without visiting hospital or their GP".

Twenty-nine people in the UK have now died from swine flu.

The current advice from the NHS for people who suspect they may have swine flu is to stay at home and use the online symptom checker at www.nhs.uk or call the swine flu information line on 0800 1 513 513.

The announcement of the GWH death comes as the number of schools under swine flu alert in Swindon reaches nearly 40.

Swindon Council has released the names of four more schools with suspected cases of swine flu, including Commonweal School, Lethbridge Primary School, Little Scholars Nursery and Isambard School. Others schools include: Ferndale Primary School, Goddard Park Primary School, Swindon Academy, Churchfields School and Haydon Wick Primary School.