Child with swine flu dies in Guatemala

[Gert van der Hoek]

Child with swine flu dies in Guatemala

Agence France-Presse

First Posted 16:19:00 06/11/2009

GUATEMALA CITY?A 12-year-old boy has become Guatemala's first fatality linked to swine flu, officials said, as the number of confirmed cases in the country rose by eight to 74.

Health Minister Celso Cerezo said late Wednesday the boy had been placed in a private hospital where a diagnosis showed he died from kidney failure, although it also confirmed he was stricken with A(H1N1), the virus threatening to spread to global pandemic status.

The government confirmed eight more cases, in five girls all age 12, two women age 21 and 31, and a 68-year-old man.

Guatemala is the eighth nation to report a death linked to swine flu. All are in the Americas and the Caribbean.

Guatemala shares a border with Mexico, the early epicenter of the swine flu outbreak.

"The A flu situation in Guatemala is categorized as an epidemic, while the global level is already a pandemic," Cerezo said.

The minister was getting ahead of the World Health Organization, which said it was consulting Thursday with its emergency committee of flu experts who could recommend the declaration of a swine flu pandemic.

Since the A(H1N1) virus was first discovered in the United States and Mexico in April, some 74 countries have reported 27,737 cases including 141 deaths to the WHO.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breaki...209955/Child-with-swine-flu-dies-in-Guatemala

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Child with swine flu dies in Guatemala

Source: http://www2.esmas.com/noticierostel...251/primera-victima-influenza-ah1n1-guatemala

Google translation:
First victim of influenza AH1N1 in Guatemala

* By: Francisco Cuevas | 2009-06-11

A child of 12 years becomes the first victim of influenza AH1N1 in Guatemala

GUATEMALA, Guatemala, in June. 11, 2009 .- A child twelve years of age died as a result of human influenza virus AH1N1 reported health authorities in Guatemala.

The autopsy report indicates that the child ceased to exist due to complications arising from kidney and bronchopneumonia caused the effects that the disease was diagnosed last May 29.

The juvenile was treated in a private hospital in Guatemala City, reported the Minister of Health and Welfare, Celso Cerezo, who added that the hospital reported the case of a disease afflicting young.

Also, the head of the Public Health and Welfare confirmed eight new cases, bringing the official number of patients with the human influenza type A in Guatemala amounts to seventy-four.

The eight new cases have been reported in the capital and six women and two men.

The child's death is recorded just hours after the government of President Alvaro Colom decided to advance the mid-year vacation from Monday June 15 and will run normally until Wednesday, July 1.

At the moment waiting for the outcome of forty suspected cases were sent to the laboratory for analysis.