Flu patient's family agree to payout, official says

• Source: Global Times
• [08:01 July 06 2009]
• Comments

By Huang Jingjing

Lou Yihong, the 34-year-old A (H1N1) flu patient who died “accidentally” at the No. 1 People’s Hospital of Xiaoshan district in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, was electrocuted to death, the Beijing News reported yesterday.

Her family has signed a contract accepting 950,000 yuan ($140,000) in compensation, the director of the local press office, surnamed Shen, said.

“Why and how the electric shock happened is still being investigated and the results are due out within a week,” he said.

In a separate development, six students and a teacher from the Nanhuzhongyuan primary school in Beijing were confirmed as having A (H1N1) Saturday, taking the total at the school to 29, the Municipal Health Bureau said on its website.

All 29 people are in hospital and in a stable condition, it said.

A school employee told the Global Times yesterday that it had started its summer vacation a week early as a result of the infections.

“The students and teacher were infected by imported, or second-generation, cases,” Ma Yanming, the health bureau’s deputy press officer, told the Global Times.

“We haven’t tightened prevention and control measures because of the school break, as they were already strict,” he said.

The number of cases will continue to rise until imported cases are stopped, he said.

“As time passes, people’s awareness of the flu increases and the prevention and control measures become standard. The A(H1N1) flu will just be an ordinary flu next year,” he said.

As of 6 pm yesterday, 38 new cases had been confirmed on the mainland in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 1,040, the Ministry of Health said on its website.