A MEMBER of staff and five students at Exeter College have been diagnosed as having swine flu since the beginning of the autumn term.

Although numbers are low at the moment, the college anticipates there may be an increase in people being diagnosed with the disease during the the winter.

Stuart Bradshaw, head of health and safety at the college, said: "We can confirm that over the last three weeks we have had one confirmed case of swine flu among staff and five confirmed cases among students.

"We do not consider this to be a significant amount at the moment, given that across the college we have over 4,000 full-time students.

"However, we do anticipate that there will be increases in numbers either towards the end of this year or at the beginning of next, and we have already completed a risk assessment and have additional control measures in place to deal with this.

"Of course, our duty of care to staff and students remains of paramount importance and we are therefore monitoring the situation on a daily basis.

"Meanwhile, our advice to anyone affected remains that they should stay at home for at least seven days, which is the incubation period, and until they feel better, which can be up to 14 days, and to follow the advice being offered by the NHS and Government advice line. "