35-year-old woman succumbs to H1N1

A 35-year-old woman has succumbed to complications from influenza.

A media official at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) has confirmed the death to RaajjeMV.

The woman is to have died while receiving treatment for H1N1, a type of influenza A virus on Sunday evening.

This comes not long after Internal medicine specialist Dr. Mohamed Ali confirmed the spread of influenza in the Maldives, on January 14.

Dr. Mohamed had revealed that three individuals were receiving treatment in ventilator support and that one patient had succumbed to the swine flu within the past 30 days.

RaajjeMV was unable to attain a comment from the Ministry of Health regarding the spread of H1N1 at the time of publishing.

However, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) earlier this month confirmed that testing for the virus had increased immensely and that 413 out of the 2,380 samples tested so far this year, have returned positive.

The public health authority has appealed on the public to get vaccinated against the ongoing influenza outbreak, as a preventive measure.

Vaccinations will be available at Dhamanaveshi for all above six months of age.

HPA had undertaken awareness efforts against influenza due to its highly infectious nature and the high risk for further health complications, after an outbreak in 2020 as well.