A total of eight people have died from H1N1 infection across the country as of June 24 and seven of them are from Yangon Region, said Dr Tun Myint, Deputy Director General from Department of Public Health of the region.

“According to the statistics, we found 174 H1N1 suspects, 35 confirmed H1N1 patients and eight deaths till June 24. Among them, 78 H1N1 suspects, 24 confirmed H1N1 patients and seven deaths are from Yangon Region. One more death is happened in Yangon and it is a one year and three months old child, who died at Yankin Children Hospital, from North Dagon Township,” he said.

Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 is a seasonal flu that infects every year and it is also spreading in neighbouring countries this year. Myanmar found 458 flu patients in 2017 and 406 of them were infected with the H1N1 virus. Among those, 38 people died. In 2018, 13 out of 118 flu patients were found infected with H1N1 virus but no one died from the virus, according to the announcement from the Ministry of Health and Sports released on June 20.

The World Health Organization (WHO) gave advice to control seasonal influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 in Myanmar in 2017 to set protocols to test seasonal influenza virus among severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) patients in the time when the seasonal influenza outbreak occurs and to set an important task to prevent resistance to the drugs.