Vu Van Manh developed high fever and sore throat last Saturday but was only hospitalized on Wednesday when his condition turned critical with respiratory failure.

He was transferred to Da Nang General Hospital on Thursday but died later the same day. Test results from Pasteur Institute in the nearby Nha Trang Town on Friday confirmed he had the H1N1 virus.

The 40-year-old had been treated for collagenases, the enzymes that break peptide bonds in collagen, for five years and that has affected his immune system, said Nguyen Ut, deputy director of Da Nang Health Department.

The Ministry of Health on Friday reported 218 new cases of swine flu, raising the country’s tally to 6,179 with seven deaths, including the latest one reported last Sunday of a 19-year-old woman from the Mekong Delta Ben Tre Province.

Others fatalities include a 9-year-old boy from Dong Nai Province, three adults in Ho Chi Minh City and the first one in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa.

The swine flu has this week spread to more schools across the country, with Ho Chi Minh City on Friday reporting nine more outbreaks, all in schools, and south central Binh Dinh Province shutting down a primary school and a junior high school.

The global pandemic so far has hit 22 schools in Hue city Town, 11 in the south central Phu Yen Province and eight in Quang Ngai Province further north.

Source: Thanh Nien, VNA