FRESH cases of swine flu were confirmed in Exeter as the Government warned the number of people with the virus could reach 100,000 per day by the end of next month.

Three pupils at West Exe Technology College have tested positive for swine flu and the school has three more suspected cases.

And a pregnant mum has also fallen victim to the virus but claims she was neglected by staff at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital after being admitted with breathing difficulties.

The college sent a text message to parents confirming one case of swine flu and a letter sent out yesterday confirmed this had now risen to three.

In the letter, headteacher Steve Maddern said: “Following confirmation that a student in Year 8 has swine flu, we have two more confirmed cases with a further three more suspected.”

A mother of two pupils at West Exe, who did not want to be named, said: “In my mind the school should be shut if it’s spreading like that.”

Two students at Colyton Grammar School have also been diagnosed swine flu.

The Echo reported earlier this week how numerous children from St Sidwell’s Primary School were being kept away from lessons over swine flu fears And a child at Little Ones Childcare based at Wynstream School in Wonford is believed to have the virus.

Other cases have been confirmed at Exeter International Airport. Spokesman Jonathan Raynor said: “Exeter airport can confirm that some mild cases of swine flu have affected different departments of the airport. Of these cases only one has been confirmed as swine flu, and three have been unconfirmed.

“Two are already back at work, one is expected back on Friday and another on Monday.

“There is no evidence of widespread transmission.”

Pregnant mum Crystal Carpenter, who lives in Blackboy Road, Exeter, has also fallen victim to the virus but claims she was neglected by staff at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital.

The 19-year-old, who is 26 weeks pregnant with her second child, said: “I feel I was neglected. They didn’t seem to know how to deal with it. They did not appear to be equipped. They were all walking around with masks on seemingly not wanting to touch me.”

Mrs Carpenter said she had called her doctor on Wednesday morning complaining of sickness following direct contact with a swine flu victim. The doctor gave her a course of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu.

Later that day, Mrs Carpenter developed breathing difficulties and an ambulance was called to her house. She arrived at the RD&E at around 10pm on Wednesday and was put in an isolation room. However, 30 minutes later she was moved on to a ward where she was put in a room on her own.

“I was left for a long time on my own,” she told the Echo. “I felt like they were scared and wanted minimal contact.”

At around 4am on Thursday morning, the hospital fire alarm was sounded and Mrs Carpenter, who has described swine flu as being similar to regular flu but “many times worse”, said she was moved into a room without a bed.

She claims she was left there, with just a chair for comfort, for nearly two hours before she decided to discharge herself.

An RD&E spokeswoman said: “Our emergency department was fully staffed but experienced an exceptionally busy evening with 279 patient attendances, including some very seriously ill patients.

“On arrival our staff were informed that Ms Carpenter was receiving treatment as a suspected, not confirmed, swine flu patient so in line with Department of Health guidelines, she was kept away from other patients in the department.

“We are sorry to hear that Ms Carpenter feels she did not have a positive experience when she was in our emergency department but at no stage was Ms Carpenter’s safety or wellbeing compromised. She was appropriately assessed and monitored. It is possible that Ms Carpenter was unaware that the duty consultant did not need to go to her bedside to monitor her condition because he was doing that remotely.

“Whilst caring for a high number of acutely ill patients, our staff had to move Ms Carpenter to another room for her safety because another patient maliciously set off a fire alarm which triggered evacuation of the majority of patients in our care in that department. The room she was moved into ordinarily would have had a trolley bed in it but that may have been used as part of the patient evacuation activity. We would have preferred to have discharged Ms Carpenter earlier but our staff were looking after very poorly emergency patients who required intensive care.”

The outbreak started in Exeter when 10 university students tested positive for the virus last week.

For more swine flu articles and advice visit http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/swineflu