A pregnant woman from the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, six months into her term, has become the 41st victim of swine flu, a health official said November 11.

A doctor at HCMC’s  Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital examines a patient of A/H1N1 flu

Dr. Nguyen Huy Nga, chief of the Preventive Health and Environment Department, said at a meeting of the National Steering Board of Human Flu Prevention that the 16-year-old developed a fever, cough, and sore throat on November 3 and bought medicines to treat herself.

Four days later, when her condition worsened, she was taken to the province’s General Hospital where she died on November 9.

Tests carried out by the Ho Chi Minh City-based Pasteur Institute later confirmed she had swine flu.

Flu-related hospitalizations continue to occur nationwide, with 17 provinces so far reporting deaths.

Nguyen Tran Hien, director of the Central Institute of Hygiene Epidemiology, said the National Steering Board for Vaccination against H1N1 has decided to vaccinate 1.2 million women who are three or more months pregnant.

According to a Pasteur Institute survey, 60 per cent of people with flu live in HCMC, half of them aged between 10 and 19.

The president of the institute, Tran Ngoc Huu, warned that the possibility of the H1N1 and H5N1 viruses combining is very high with winter approaching.