OXFORDSHIRE’S senior health official last night said the county could cope with a swine flu outbreak as three new cases were confirmed in the UK.

Dr Jonathan McWilliam moved to reassure the public as senior officials from the police, Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, the Health Protection Agency, Oxfordshire County Council, and the fire and ambulance services held their third meeting in as many days over swine flu.

At the time of going to press, five people in the UK had been confirmed as having the disease, which is being linked to more than 160 deaths in Mexico and one in the United States.

Seventy-six people in the UK have been tested. There have been no reported cases or tests in Oxfordshire.

Dr McWilliam, the director of public health for Oxfordshire, said the county had sufficient stockpiles of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, which helps to ease the symptoms of flu, if there was an outbreak.

He said: “We have been planning for an event like this for the last five years. We are making sure our plans are well oiled and fit for purpose to protect the people of Oxfordshire.

“All agencies are glued together and people should feel calm and reassured.

“The vast majority of people will be completely unaffected by this disease.

“It’s only people returning from Mexico and the United States who need to be concerned. Most people who feel ill should remain calm and treat any flu-like symptoms as they would normally.”

Dr Eamonn O’Moore, director of the Thames Valley Health Protection Unit, said his offices in Oxford had seen a significant rise in calls over the past few days.

He said: “We have been busy, but we are coping. We are taking a lot of calls from GPs, nurses and members of the public.”

The Department of Health is expected to deliver leaflets about the flu to every household in the county next week.

Meanwhile, scientists at two Oxford centres are working on vaccines for swine flu.

Dr Sarah Gilbert, at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, is working on a vaccine for all strains of flu with a single jab for life, while Prof Elspeth Garman, at the Department of Biochemistry, is working on a drug to attack the structure of the virus.

Prof Garman said she planned to use the £260m Diamond Light Source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, in Harwell, to examine the N protein in the new swine flu virus (H1N1).