Hong Kong (ANTARA News/AFP) - A man has died in Hong Kong after contracting swine flu, health authorities said Monday, a year-and-a-half after an outbreak of the disease killed 80 people in the city.

Hong Kong`s Hospital Authority said a total of 37 people were being treated for swine flu in intensive care units in the city, with 12 critical cases confirmed in the last three days.

The southern Chinese financial centre, home to around seven million people, is nervous about infectious diseases, following an outbreak of the SARS virus in 2003, which killed 300 people in the city and a further 500 around the world.

The latest swine flu fatality was aged 61 and died on Saturday due to what the Hospital Authority called "continued deterioration of clinical condition".

Two men aged 62 and 53 and died on February 6 in Hong Kong after contracting the A(H1N1) virus, which is commonly known as swine flu, while a 27-year-old woman died on January 25.

Swine flu has killed more than 18,400 people and affected virtually all parts of the world since it was uncovered in Mexico and the United States in April 2009, according to the World Health Organization.

In August last year, the agency said swine flu had "largely run its course", declaring an end to the pandemic. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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