SEOUL – A South Korean man has died from swine flu, becoming the country’s first reported human death from the virus this winter, health officials said Thursday.
The 30-year-old man began to show symptoms on Monday and tests showed he was infected with the A (H1N1) virus, said the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was taken into intensive care in hospital but died on Wednesday morning, it said. “This marked the country’s first death caused by the H1N1 virus this winter,” a centre spokesman told AFP, contradicting an earlier report by Yonhap news agency that it was the first swine flu death of the year.
The virus has killed more than 200 people in South Korea since April 2009, he said. The centre said there was no need to be overly concerned about the virus if people maintained good personnel hygiene.
Health officials also said South Korea had secured enough vaccines for influenza viruses. Swine flu has killed thousands of people around the world since it was uncovered in Mexico and the United Sates in April 2009.
