HEALTH officials have confirmed the first two cases of swine flu in Macclesfield.

One is a man who works in Adlington while the other victim, who lives in Macclesfield is, as yet, unnamed.

Matt Griffiths, 27, a machine programmer at Proseal, on Adlington Business Park, confirmed he contracted the illness, and said it made him feel like a leper.

He said people avoided him once they realised he and his partner had swine flu, but that "public perception was worse than the reality".

Matt and partner Dawn Clarke, 37, who was also diagnosed with the Influenza A(H1N1) virus, are now fully recovered after a course of antibiotics. The couple, who live in Reddish, Stockport, were forced to stay off work and take their youngster out of school.

Matt said: "(Swine flu) was bad, but no worse than other things I’ve had in the past. It’s just like a bad case of flu. I was obviously much more concerned about the kids, but they were tested and didn’t get it.

"The main problem we found was the public perceptions of swine flu, and how people treat you differently. You get treated a bit like leper.

"Our social lives suffered, and so did our children’s. We didn’t get any party invites, people would joke for us to stay away, but it seemed like they meant it really.

"I definitely noticed people taking a step back."

Matt, of Naseby Road, who also lives with his 18-year-old stepdaughter, Lauren, took his seven-year-old son Ethan out of school, and he was also given treatment, as a precaution.

The couple believe they contracted swine flu while out in south Manchester, on Friday, June 12.

Matt added: "We went out to a bar in Rusholme on the Friday and by Tuesday Dawn started to feel pretty bad.

"We were given a swab and both came back positive for swine flu. As far as I’m aware we are the first in Stockport to get it.

"I phoned my mum and told her. She said, ‘Oh my god!’ but I calmed her down. It’s really not that bad.

"The worst bit was the fever. I woke up and just felt much hotter than normal."

Matt’s boss Steve Malone, managing director of Proseal, told the Macclesfield Express it wasn’t necessary to evacuate the office after the diagnosis, but added: "We wiped down his desk, emptied the bins and wiped the seats.

"We have taken all the precautions we were told to on the HPA website, and made all the staff aware of it."

Of the second victim, a spokesman for the Health Protection Agency, which is responsible for managing cases across the UK, said: "I can confirm there has been a case of swine flu in Macclesfield.

"The man is a returning traveller, who had been the United States. He contracted the infection abroad."

A spokesman for the Health Protection Agency said: "Obviously there are one or two cases where people have been seriously ill with swine flu, but for the vast majority in this country it’s a mild illness from which people recover very quickly."