Lithuania confirms second swine flu fatality

Nov 23, 2009, 14:00 GMT

Vilnius - Health officials in Lithuania confirmed Monday that the country had recorded its second death linked to the A/H1N1 flu virus, known commonly as swine flu.

The victim was a 41-year-old man from the eastern city of Ignalina who had been admitted to hospital on November 15 and died on Sunday night, Deputy Health Minister Arturas Skikas told journalists at a press conference in Vilnius.

Skikas estimated that more than 400 individuals had been hospitalized so far, with around one tenth of that number confined to intensive care.

The number of swine flu cases in Lithuania has risen sharply in recent weeks.

More than one third of Lithuania's 60 municipalities have declared the incidence of flu as having reached epidemic levels.

Lithuanian Health Minister Algis Caplikas said Monday that 6,000 additional doses of antiviral drugs were being sent to local health authorities in addition to a batch distributed last week.

The first Lithuanian fatality was a 14-year-old boy from the Baltic state's second-largest city, Kaunas, who died on May 9.

Estimating the true level of swine flu has been complicated by the simultaneous appearance of endemic seasonal influenza.

The first death in the Baltic states from swine flu occurred on October 9 when a 50-year-old Latvian woman died after returning from a trip to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania.