Second swine flu patient dies

A 63-year-old man yesterday officially became the second Maltese to die of swine flu.

The man, who had chronic health problems, died on Tuesday but the cause of death was identified yesterday, the health authorities said.

He was admitted to hospital on August 23 and while in intensive care it was established that he was suffering from (A) H1N1.

A total of 282 cases of (A) H1N1 have been confirmed to date, with 255 recovering without complications. The first Maltese fatality was an 82-year-old woman, who died on August 17 following complications from chronic cardiac conditions and respiratory problems.

The authorities had stressed that the death was expected.

"We have a number of deaths from influenza every year," said Charmaine Gauci, director of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department.

Elderly and people with underlying chronic conditions are more vulnerable, which is why the health authorities are focusing on them during the pandemic outbreak.

Although local statistics for the annual death rate from influenza are not available, the global mortality rate was quoted at 0.1 per cent by Nigel Lightfoot, the chief advisor on emergency preparedness and head of the pandemic influenza programme at the UK's Health Promotion Agency. He told The Sunday Times last month that swine flu was no more deadly than the seasonal winter influenza.

After July 6, the World Health Organisation stopped producing detailed worldwide figures but the latest international estimates put the number of cases at 177,699 and 1,126 deaths worldwide. Cases have now been confirmed in 210 countries and territories around the world and the illness has caused deaths in 39 of them.