ANOTHER person has died at the San Fernando General Hospital from suspected Influenza A H1N1, the Express has learnt.

The 28-year-old Penal resident, who only got married last month, spent three days warded at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with a severe respiratory illness, and hospital officials believe it is directly related to the swine flu. He succumbed to his illness around 10 a.m. yesterday.

Attempts by the Express to get confirmation from the Ministry of Health of the number of swine flu deaths as of yesterday proved difficult, as officials were reportedly in a closed meeting up to late last night.

San Fernando yesterday told the Express ’there are no more suspected cases in the ICU’. But after lunch yesterday, another patient from the casualty ward was diagnosed with the virus, while two other patients in Ward 2 were also suspected of contracting it. As a result, the hospital started using the ward as a holding bay for patients suspected of having the virus.

While restrictions at the ICU were removed yesterday, the situation at the hospital was still tense. The Express understands that some nurses were refusing to wear their safety gear or masks to guard against the outbreak of the disease.

Meanwhile, in a press release yesterday, the Medical Practitioners Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MPATT) said it is plain to see the health system is not equipped to deal with the second wave of swine flu.

MPATT said Government’s failure to increase institutional capacity will no doubt result in its incapacity to cope with the demands of a severe swine-flu outbreak.

’For nearly a decade, MPATT has been repeatedly pointing out that our public healthcare infrastructure has been deteriorating and continues to do so more rapidly now. ... Our public institutions do not have the capacity to manage the basic demands required of our population, and has been struggling to cope with the demand of only the urgent and emergency cases,’ the statement said.

While addressing members of the media at a news conference on Wednesday at the Ministry of Health in Port of Spain, Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) country representative, Dr Carol Boyd Scobie, said obese people were on top of the ’high-risk list’.

Researchers have also said obese people who do not have underlying health conditions and are otherwise healthy, still may be at special risk.

-With reporting by

Louis B Homer