Pupils offered bird flu drugs after 9-year-old classmate is treated for symptoms

The nine-year-old girl's condition is believed to be linked to an outbreak of the virus on a farm in North Wales.

Public health and education officials are meeting parents of children at the Ysgol Henllan school in Denbighshire.

The girl has been treated and is understood to be recovering at home.

Dr Brendan Mason, a consultant epidemiologist, said that giving the other pupils the anti-viral drugs was "an unusual step for us to take because the risk of the infection being passed from the child to other pupils is so small."

He added: "It is very rare to see this particular flu virus so we are taking every reasonable precaution to eliminate it from the community."

Health officials investigating the outbreak believe dozens could have been in contact with the disease.

Twelve people in the area have symptoms of flu, which include conjunctivitis.

The alert stems back to the discovery of the H7N2 strain of bird flu at a farm at Corwen, North Wales, last week.

It is run by 37-year-old Tony Williams and his partner Barbara Cowling, who have both tested negative for the virus.

The infected girl is believed to be from the nearby village of Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr. She visited the affected farm ten days ago - for less than a quarter of an hour.

The National Public Health Service for Wales believes it is possible that the virus is spreading from human to human, which brings a risk that dangerous mutations may occur.

• Scientists said that they had potentially found a way of combating the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu using antibodies from survivors of the virus.

Researchers said the findings, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, were "encouraging".