AN OXFORD University student was last night confirmed as having swine flu.

The postgraduate zoology student became the ninth person in Oxford to be diagnosed with the virus after falling ill during a visit to the USA.

But Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust was last night criticised after mistakenly saying another person from the county had been confirmed with swine flu, connected to the outbreak at Eton College in Berkshire.

It had to apologise after running the announcement on its own website for 24 hours.

The university student, a zoology postgraduate, contracted swine flu while visiting Phoenix in Arizona, Oxford University’s director of occupational health Dr Ian Brown said yesterday.

He said: “He started to feel unwell while in Arizona, and has been at home in isolation since returning to the UK.

“He has been treated with Tamiflu and is now feeling well and asymptomatic.

“Given the size of the university and the number of academics and students who travel overseas, this is not an unexpected development and is not a cause for concern.”

Last month, health officials were criticised for the delay in releasing the news that a girl at Sandhills Primary School was being treated for the illness after returning from Mexico.

City councillor for Barton and Sandhills Patrick Murray reiterated his calls for greater transparency in releasing details of new cases accurately and swiftly after the PCT’s blunder in wrongly announcing an Oxfordshire person connected to Eton had contracted swine flu.

He said: “For something that is in such public interest, it is unfortunate that this mistake has been made.”

Mr Murray added a Government-imposed rule restricting the announcement of new cases until after 3pm every day was unhelpful.

He said: “The last thing anyone should want is rumours circulating. I think it can spread fear and panic.”

A spokesman for Oxfordshire PCT said: “The case of the Berkshire boarding school, which was posted on our website, was a case of miscommunication and we apologise.

“It was extremely busy over the weekend with the cases confirmed at the boarding school, Eton.

“The statement has now been removed.”

The World Health Organisation warned it was getting closer to declaring a global outbreak of the virus.

Flu chief Keiji Fukuda said the disease has reached 64 countries and infected 18,965 people, killing 117.

The majority of cases and deaths have been reported in Mexico and the US, but increasingly the virus is spreading in countries including Britain, Spain, Japan, Chile and Australia.