Swine flu kills woman in Central Highlands

By Duc Hoa   November 11, 2019 | 08:35 pm PT
Swine flu kills woman in Central Highlands
A medical assistant prepares an H1N1 vaccine shot. Photo by Reuters/Louafi Larbi.
A 37-year-old woman died of swine flu at a hospital in Kon Tum Province in the Central Highlands last Friday.

The Kon Tum General Hospital has quarantined 44 people who were in contact with Nguyen Thi Thom for monitoring.

Nguyen Loc Vuong, director of the Kon Tum Centre for Disease Control, said on Monday that Thom had had mild fever, fatigue and anorexia a fortnight earlier, and was admitted to the Kon Tum General Hospital’s intensive care and toxic management department on November 3.

According to the Central Highlands Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, the patient tested positive for A/H1N1 influenza and passed away after six days of intensive treatment.

Doctors are giving tamiflu, an antiviral medication to the 44 quarantined people. One of them, who was in close contact with Thom, is receiving intensive treatment.

Swine flu claimed another three lives in Vietnam earlier this year, when a 31-year-old woman from Thanh Hoa Province, who was 24 weeks pregnant with twins, died in Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital in February.

Influenza A/H1N1 is a regular seasonal flu. Chronic patients, people with compromised immune systems, pregnant women and other vulnerable people contracting the influenza A virus are susceptible to multiple organ damage and severe complications leading to death.

The contagious virus easily spreads when an infected person coughs, sneezes, laughs, or talks. The disease can also be spread by touching the surface of an infected item and sharing utensils and toothbrushes with sick persons.

There was a global epidemic in 2009 which caused more than 17,000 deaths.

Last year eight people died of the disease in Vietnam.

 
 
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