Flu Spreads, Kills US Man

Australia, Japan see cases

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted May 10, 2009 7:30 AM CDT

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Flu Spreads, Kills US Man — A nurse prepares a sample that was taken from a passenger who arrived from the US with fly symptoms in Auckland, New Zealand, last month. (AP Photo / Greg Bowker, New Zealand Herald)

Health officials have confimed that a 30-year-old Washington state man died last week of the H1N1 flu strain, raising its US death toll to three, Reuters reports. He had suffered from heart problems. The disease has now been found in some 2,200 Americans and has spread to Japan and Australia. The new flu could mix with other flu strains as flu season begins in the southern hemisphere, warned health officials.

“One of the big challenges with influenza viruses is the way that they change, the way they combine and their prevalence in a number of species,” said a CDC expert. “This is why it is so important for countries to have a strong capacity to deal with influenza."
(More swine flu stories.)

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