Children kept home as seven-year-old hit with swine flu

DOZENS of children at a Mayo school are being monitored for any signs of swine flu after a seven-year-old became the latest person to contract the virus.

Health authorities have confirmed that the child, who is in first class in Breaffy National School and believed to be from Balla near Castlebar, was diagnosed with the infection late on Thursday night.

The youngster had been showing signs of the virus and had been absent from school on Thursday in order to undergo tests, which confirmed the seven-year-old as the 16th Irish person to become infected.