Posted: 15 June 2009 0519 hrs
People wear masks as they stand outside the Houses of Parliament in London.LONDON: A patient suffering from A(H1N1) flu died on Sunday in hospital in Scotland, authorities there announced, in the first death of a patient with the virus in Britain and the first outside the Americas.
"With regret, we can confirm that one of the patients who had been in hospital, and had been confirmed as suffering from the H1N1 virus, has died today," said a statement issued by the Scottish Government.
"The patient had underlying health conditions."
The statement said that no further details would be released on Sunday to give the family time to come to terms with their loss.
The World Health Organisation on Thursday declared the first influenza pandemic in four decades, saying the further spread of A(H1N1) flu was "inevitable".
The A(H1N1) virus has so far infected almost 30,000 people in 74 countries since it was first detected in Mexico in April, according to the latest WHO figures released on Friday, which put the death toll then at 145.
Up to now the deaths had been limited to the Americas.
In Scotland, the patient who died was one of 10 people diagnosed with A(H1N1) flu who had been hospitalised, out of almost 500 cases across the country. In Britain as a whole, 1,226 people have been confirmed to have the virus.
Scottish Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon sought earlier on Sunday to reassure the public, saying: "We remain one of the best prepared countries in the world.
"As in every other country, the vast majority of people contracting the virus are experiencing relatively mild symptoms." - AFP/de
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
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