A woman suffering from swine flu has died in the West Midlands as hospitals battled rising cases of the disease, it emerged today.

The victim was in her 70s and had been a patient at New Cross Hospital in Wol-verhampton for over a week when she passed away in Intensive Care on Monday.

The unnamed woman was showing symptoms of the disease on her admission last week and tests later confirmed that she was a sufferer.

But she had other underlying medical conditions that could have caused or contributed to her death.

The woman who died, and is believed to have lived in Wolverhampton, was also showing signs of pneumonia and a potentially serious lung condition.

The hospital’s chief executive David Loughton said: “We would urge people, especially those at risk chronic lung condition, asthma, heart problems, the elderly and pregnant women, to have the flu jab as a matter of urgency.”

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust said it was treating seven people with flu, including swine flu cases.