TAIPEI: Swine flu, officially known as influenza A(H1N1), has claimed one more life in Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reported yesterday.

The victim, the 18th in Taiwan, was a 34-year-old man who was also Taiwan's first patient hospitalized for severe H1N1 symptoms, the center said.

The man, who suffered from ankylosing spondylitis - a form of chronic inflammation of the spine and the sacroiliac joints that causes spinal pain and stiffness - had been in intensive care since being hospitalized in mid-July after showing severe flu-like symptoms.

According to the center, the man had received intubation and ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), but such efforts failed to save him. He died late Monday from septic shock.

Meanwhile, the center said yesterday that no new H1N1 hospitalization cases had been reported in the previous 24 hours, leaving the total number of hospitalized patients since the outbreak began at 298, including 18 fatalities.

Of that number, only 25 are still being treated in local hospitals, while the other 255 have been discharged.

A CECC official said Sunday that the intensity of the swine flu outbreak is abating in Taiwan as the rate of people being hospitalized with the H1N1 virus has clearly declined.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 09/30/2009 page2)