Europe reports 1st swine flu death

Three days after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, the government in Scotland announced late Sunday that an infected patient who also had "underlying health conditions" had died in hospital.
It was the first death in a patient with the A(H1N1) virus outside the Americas since the first cases were reported in Mexico two month ago.
Canadian health authorities have since confirmed their sixth swine flu death, a woman in her fifties who had also suffered from "a chronic disease."
The Scottish patient was among 10 people hospitalized with the virus, out of 498 confirmed cases in Scotland and 1,261 in total across Britain.

’Victim recently gave birth’

British officials would not confirm the victim's identity, but media reports said she was a 38-year-old woman, who gave birth some three months prematurely about a fortnight ago. The baby is understood not to have swine flu. Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon offered her condolences to the patient's family and sought to alleviate public concern.

"Tragic though today's death is, I would like to emphasize that the vast majority of those who have H1N1 are suffering from relatively mild symptoms," she said, adding: "The risk to the general public remains low."

England's health ministry said it was monitoring the situation "very closely." The WHO raised its global alert to a maximum six on June 11, saying swine flu had reached pandemic status because of its geographical spread. The virus, which was first detected in Mexico in April, has so far infected almost 30,000 people in 74 countries, according to the latest WHO figures. Around 150 of those have died.

The geographic spread was highlighted on Monday when the Solomon Islands, a remote archipelago in the South Pacific, reported its first suspected case. A man who had been studying in Australia and returned home last week for a holiday was experiencing flu-like symptoms, said James Auto of the country's swine flu taskforce. The man has been placed in isolation in a hospital in the capital, Honiara. But Auto warned against panic, after rumors of an outbreak saw some patients flee the hospital in Honiara at the weekend.

Saudi Arabia reported three new cases of swine flu, taking to 12 the number of infections since the virus appeared in the kingdom 11 days ago. Junior health minister Khalid al-Zahrani said the ministry was taking action to guard against the pandemic's spread during pilgrimages to Muslim holy sites but would not restrict entry to pilgrims because of the threat.