Official Swine Flu Death In China
Written by Rupert Kircz | Monday, 26 October 2009 | There is 1 comment
The person who died was an eighteen year old woman 
The Chinese government has stepped up swine flu monitoring following a confirmed death from the virus in the southwest Tibet region. The government also provided a statement warning that the number of people contracting the disease could increase and people should be extra vigilant. Health authorities sent around 200,000 doses of an influenza vaccine to the area and also sent stocks of Tamiflu in a bid to control the spread of the virus.
The person who died was an eighteen year old woman who had an advanced case of the swine flu and no further information about whether she had any underlying health conditions was issued. In all the Chinese government say they have recorded over 21,000 cases of swine flu and the fact that they have had only one death is a sign that they are coping with it well. Thirteen individuals remain in a serious condition from contracting the H1N1 virus.
The Chinese government has been extremely proactive with dealing with the swine flu virus and has even initiated huge inoculation campaigns all over the country. The Chinese pharmaceutical industry has diverted huge resources into developing vaccines and the Chinese government has fast tracked the approval process to get them out there as quickly as possible.
The health ministry of China said it aimed to vaccinate over 65 million people before the end of 2009. This may sound like a huge amount of people but with a population of 1.3 billion in the country only five percent will get these vaccines and it is likely that the demand for them will greatly exceed the supply despite the Chinese pharmaceutical industry’s rapid production.
The Chinese government is rightly concerned that if a full on swine flu pandemic broke out in some of China’s very overpopulated cities the fallout could be catastrophic with millions, if not tens of millions of deaths.
