November 29, 2009 worldwide update by the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO) states that “207 countries and overseas territories/communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 8,768 deaths.”
A 74-year-old man, who was running a fever of more than 38 degrees, tested positive Friday for type A influenza and was given the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
He collapsed at home around 10:30 a.m. Saturday and died 6 1/2 hours later in a hospital, city officials said.
His swine flu infection was confirmed Sunday by virus gene analysis, they said.
According to the municipal government, the man had two chronic diseases — malignant lymphoma and diabetes. He was vaccinated for swine flu Nov. 16.
On Saturday, a man in his 20s in the city of Akita died after his bronchial asthma worsened due to the flu virus.
He was also being treated for a chronic neurological disease, according to Akita officials.
Also Saturday, a 51-year-old man in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, died after suffering from severe pneumonia, officials said. The man did not have any chronic diseases and was prescribed Tamiflu on Dec. 1 when he visited a local hospital.
The nation’s first swine flu infection was confirmed in May, when an Osaka Prefecture high school student who returned from abroad tested positive at Narita International Airport.
The National Institute of Infectious Diseases said late last month that an estimated 10.75 million people have visited doctors due to influenza since early July. Many are believed to have been infected with swine flu.
