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NE China province reports first death of H1N1 flu

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-31 21:49

HARBIN: Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province reported its first death case of A/H1N1 influenza on Saturday.

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It is believed to be the fifth death case of the disease in Chinese mainland.

The Ministry of Health had reported two new death cases in a statement on its website, bringing the total deaths to six. But information of the sixth case is not yet available.

According to an official in charge of publicity in the Heilongjiang Provincial health department who declined to be named, the patient was a local adult of Harbin, Heilongjiang's capital.

The official didn't give further details.

Deaths from A/H1N1 have earlier been reported from Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Beijing.

According to earlier report, a seven-year-old boy in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province died of seasonal influenza and severe pneumonia. The A/H1N1 strain was found in the flu viruses that infected the first grader at Yingjun Primary School in Suihua City, but it was yet known if the A/H1N1 flu was the main cause for the boy's death.