China: two deaths from H1N1 flu

Tuesday, 08.01.2013, 13:59

Two Chinese women have died of H1N1 flu in Beijing for 10 days, the Beijing Daily newspaper quoted officials said on 7/1.

These are the first deaths because the flu virus in the Chinese capital since 2010.

Beijing Daily  quoted the Center for Disease Control and Prevention China said a 65-year-old cancer patient died on 5/1 and a 22-year-old migrant worker died on 27/12/2012. Health authorities in Beijing said the women were inherently in a state of poor health.

The flu cases in Beijing is at its highest level in five years and the dominant H1N1 strain. Number of flu cases increase was due to record low temperatures in Beijing, and many regions in China.

H1N1 swine flu vaccine had caused fear in 2009 when the global outbreak in the United States and Mexico and then spread around the world in the last six weeks. Initially, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the number of deaths as epidemic spreads around the world at about 18,500 people, but a study in June said the number of flu deaths up to 284500-579000 people, according to Reuters.

H1N1 swine flu is said to be directly transmitted from pigs to humans. From 2009-2010, the H1N1 virus has killed 80 people in Beijing.