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Costa Rica sees 1st H1N1 flu death
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-10 10:39 SAN JOSE -- Costa Rica reported the first H1N1 flu death outside North America on Saturday, while Japanese authorities scrambled to limit contact with their country's first confirmed cases and Mexico delayed the reopening of primary schools in some states.
The Health Ministry in Costa Rica confirmed the flu death of a 53-year-old man, bringing the global death toll to 52, including 48 in Mexico, two in the United States and one in Canada. Like other deaths outside Mexico, the Costa Rican man suffered from complicating illnesses, including diabetes and chronic lung disease. The US reported the deaths of a toddler with a heart defect and a woman with rheumatoid arthritis, and Canadian officials said the woman who died there also had other health problems but gave no details.
In Mexico, where 48 people with the flu have died, most of the victims have been adults aged 20 to 49, and many had no reported complicating factors. People with chronic illnesses usually are at greatest risk for severe problems from flu, along with the elderly and young children. The Costa Rican fatality was one of eight H1N1 flu cases in the country confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Minister Maria Luisa Avila said. Avila said officials had been unable to determine how the Costa Rican patients became infected, but she said he had not recently traveled abroad. Many flu sufferers in other nations have been linked to recent trips to the United States or Mexico. In Japan, authorities quarantined a high school teacher and two teenage students who tested positive in an airport test for H1N1 flu after they returned from a school trip to Canada. Officials said they were working with the World Health Organization to contact at least 13 people on the flight who had gone on to other destinations. Japanese Health and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe acknowledged it would be difficult to trace everyone who came into contact with the three infected Japanese, who visited Ontario on a home-stay program with about 30 other students. The three were isolated and recovering at a hospital near Narita International Airport. "There are limitations to what we can do, but we will continue to monitor the situation and strengthen or relax such measures as needed," he told reporters. |
