Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Western Australia: 12-year-old swine flu patient dies

August 04, 2009

A 12-year-old boy is the sixth Western Australian to die with swine flu.

The WA health department says the boy died at home on Sunday and the state coroner is investigating.

It did not say whether he had any underlying medical problems.

Also today, the health department reported for the first time the deaths of two more people who had been carrying the swine flu virus - a 92-year-old man on July 18 and a 46-year-old man on July 29.

A spokeswoman for the health department said results from samples taken during autopsies on the pair only now confirmed that both had the swine flu virus.

The health department said in a statement the 92-year-old, who had underlying medical conditions, died at home.

It said the 46-year-old, who died at the Armadale-Kelmscott Memorial Hospital in Perth's southeast, also had underlying medical conditions.

WA chief health officer Tarun Weeramanthri said in the statement that people in vulnerable groups were at greatest risk of suffering complications.
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