The Island's director of public health says there's no need to panic about swine flu, but nobody should be complacent either.

The World Health Organisation flu alert remains at level five and the situation in the United Kingdom appears to be under control.

However, Dr Parameswaran Kishore says his advice remains the same in that anybody who thinks they may have the virus should stay at home and phone their GP for advice.

He told Manx Radio:

"Outside Mexico there have been five deaths, so we are not talking about a large number of people dying, and all these people who died of swine flu, outside Mexico, have all had severe co-existing illness. So it's not a question of a large number of people dying [and] the virus does not appear to be particularly virulent in terms of causing severe infection.

"It's still circulating and there are still new cases happening all over the world.

"This might continue to transmit at a lower level for some time and then during autumn and winter [when the] the transmittability increases, maybe it might become even more virulent."

Information, advice and useful links are available at gov.im/swineflu - the Isle of Man government's dedicted swine flu website.