A nine-year-old girl has died after contracting swine flu, it emerged yesterday, as the H1N1 virus showed signs of becoming resistant to drug treatments.

It is understood that the child, who died at a hospital in Birmingham and has not been named, had tested positive for the virus. It is not yet known, however, whether the infection contributed directly to her death. She had underlying health problems.

The child is the third patient with the H1N1 virus to die in Britain. Birmingham Children’s Hospital said that she had died in the past few days but declined to give further details of her underlying health problems — which might have included a vulnerability to complications from flu, such as pneumonia.

Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, said: “Tragic as today’s death is I would like to emphasise that, across England, the majority of swine flu cases have not been severe.”

Experts meanwhile reported the first case of swine flu that is resistant to Tamiflu — the main drug being used to fight the pandemic.

The drug manufacturer Roche confirmed that a patient with H1N1 influenza in Denmark showed resistance to the antiviral drug. The company said that this was not unexpected, given that common seasonal flu could mutate to develop resistance to the treatment.

However, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said that there were no signs of a Tamiflu-resistant strain of H1N1 circulating in Britain or elsewhere.

The Department of Health reported a big jump in the number of patients in England confirmed with swine flu over the weekend. A total of 1,604 new cases have been confirmed since Friday, taking the total in Britain to 5,937.

A spokesman said that the HPA continued to watch for antiviral resistance and would be carrying out regular testing. “Routine sampling in the UK has shown that there is currently no resistance [to Tamiflu or Relenza].”

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