Health News
Lithuania reports first swine flu fatality
Nov 18, 2009, 14:56 GMT
Vilnius - Health officials in Lithuania confirmed Wednesday that the country had recorded its first death linked to the A/H1N1 flu virus, known commonly as swine flu.
The victim was a 14-year-old boy from the Baltic state's second-largest city, Kaunas, Health Minister Algis Caplikas said at a press conference in Vilnius.
Deputy Health Minister Arturas Skikas later said the victim died of bacterial complications caused by the swine flu virus and that he had spent five days in intensive care.
Vytautas Bakasenas, Lithuania's chief epidemiologist, said that around 20 per cent of the population could expect to contract some form of flu, as endemic seasonal influenza and swine flu were currently present in Lithuania simultaneously.
However, only around 0.1 to 0.2 per cent of cases were expected to prove fatal, he said.
The Lithuanian death is the second to be recorded in the three Baltic states. On October 9, a 50-year-old Latvian woman died after returning from a trip to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania.
Health authorities in several large municipalities in Latvia and Lithuania say swine flu has officially reached epidemic status, defined as 100 people per 100,000 of population sick with the virus.
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