B.C. swine flu deaths decline again

The number of people in B.C. dying from swine flu appears to be declining, after only four deaths were recorded by provincial authorities over the past week.

The number of deaths peaked two weeks ago when 10 people with the H1N1 virus died, followed by six deaths by Tuesday last week.

Since April,34people have died after contracting the swine flu in B.C. Of those, 29 cases had underlying medical conditions, while four had no underlying conditions. One case is still under investigation.

The four new deaths reported over the past seven days included one each in:

• Interior Health region.
• Vancouver Coastal Health region.
• Northern Health region.
• On Vancouver Island.

Since Nov. 17. there have also been 109 new severe cases of H1N1 identified in B.C., including in these :

• 33 in the Fraser Health region.
• 27 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region.
• 25 in the Interior Health region.
• 19 in the Vancouver Island Health region.
• Five in the Northern Health region.

In total, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control has reported 863 severe H1N1 cases since the virus was first detected in B.C. earlier this year. Officials say the majority of lab-confirmed cases inthe provinceremain mild or moderate in severity.

Everyone in B.C. is now eligible to receive the free vaccine.