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Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a4YglNdatUhc
Swine Flu Causes Serious Complications in 2% of Chilean Cases
By Jason Gale
June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu is causing serious and potentially deadly complications in about 2 percent of people who catch the bug in Chile, where almost 400 cases have been confirmed, local health officials said.
The Institute of Public Health in Santiago reported 24 new cases of the virus, officially known as A/H1N1, taking the national toll to 393, it said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. About 98 percent of infections in the South American country result in ?mild? disease. The rest are serious, and one was fatal, the institute said.
Swine flu cases in Chile have doubled in the past week as the virus spreads more widely in the community. The Ministry of Health has formed a team of experts to investigate why certain people develop ?severe symptoms,? the institute said.
Disease trackers are looking for evidence of widespread community transmission of swine flu outside North America, where it was discovered seven weeks ago, to determine whether the new germ has sparked the first influenza pandemic since 1968.
The new H1N1 flu strain has turned up in 66 countries as far removed as Honduras, Iceland and New Zealand. The virus is starting to spread in Australia, Japan, the U.K., Spain and Chile among people with no travel history and outside of schools and institutional settings, Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization?s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said on a conference call June 2.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 5, 2009 01:39 EDT
Swine Flu Causes Serious Complications in 2% of Chilean Cases
By Jason Gale
June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu is causing serious and potentially deadly complications in about 2 percent of people who catch the bug in Chile, where almost 400 cases have been confirmed, local health officials said.
The Institute of Public Health in Santiago reported 24 new cases of the virus, officially known as A/H1N1, taking the national toll to 393, it said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. About 98 percent of infections in the South American country result in ?mild? disease. The rest are serious, and one was fatal, the institute said.
Swine flu cases in Chile have doubled in the past week as the virus spreads more widely in the community. The Ministry of Health has formed a team of experts to investigate why certain people develop ?severe symptoms,? the institute said.
Disease trackers are looking for evidence of widespread community transmission of swine flu outside North America, where it was discovered seven weeks ago, to determine whether the new germ has sparked the first influenza pandemic since 1968.
The new H1N1 flu strain has turned up in 66 countries as far removed as Honduras, Iceland and New Zealand. The virus is starting to spread in Australia, Japan, the U.K., Spain and Chile among people with no travel history and outside of schools and institutional settings, Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization?s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said on a conference call June 2.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 5, 2009 01:39 EDT