H1N1 flu outbreak kills two more in Myanmar

YANGON: Myanmar health officials said that two more people had died after contracting H1N1 influenza in the largest city, Yangon, a day after the government said more than a dozen people had contracted the virus known as swine flu.

A pregnant woman and a man died at Yangon General Hospital on Monday, and lab tests later showed that they were both infected with H1N1, said Thinzar Aung, deputy director of the infectious diseases department at the Ministry of Health and Sport.

“Initially these people sought treatment at Yangon General Hospital on July 24 with suspected pneumonia,” she said.

The health ministry on Monday confirmed the virus had infected three other people in Yangon and 10 people in Matupi, a town in the remote northwestern state of Chin.

A six-year-old boy who died with severe respiratory problems in Matupi on July 14 was also suspected to have contracted H1N1, according to health officials.

The ministry called for the public not to panic, describing the cases of H1N1 as regular seasonal phenomenon. No outbreak of H1N1 has been reported in Myanmar since the global swine flu pandemic in 2009. — Reuters