HO CHI MINH CITY, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A 82-year-old woman from Vietnam's southern Tra Vinh province has died after infected flu virus H1N1, becoming the second H1N1 death in the province so far this year, the provincial Department of Health said Tuesday.
According to the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City, specimens from the woman who died on Aug. 9 in Tra Vinh, have been tested positive to the flu virus strain of H1N1. Earlier this month, a 60-year-old man from the province also died of the disease.
Before the latest H1N1 death, Vietnam's southern region reported seven fatalities of the flu virus. The patients came from Ho Chi Minh City, and the three provinces of Dong Thap, Tay Ninh and Tra Vinh.
Vietnam experienced an H1N1 pandemic in 2009, with over 9,000 cases of people contracting the disease and nearly 20 deaths within four months of the year, according to the country's Health Ministry.
In a tropical country like Vietnam, the bird flu circulates the entire year round, usually reaching several peaks in the rainy season. The H1N1 virus causes pernicious respiratory infection.
