KUCHING: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan said the number of Influenza A (H1N1) deaths in the state now stands at three after two suspected cases last week have been confirmed H1N1-positive.

He said the two suspected H1N1-related deaths were recorded at the Sarawak General Hospital last Thursday.

“The confirmed deaths involve a 26-year-old pregnant woman from Sri Aman, and a 48-year-old asthmatic man from Kuching,” he said when contacted yesterday.

Samples from the deceased were sent for tests to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, and were supposed to be made known at 10am last Friday at 10am, but were only known yesterday.

Sarawak recorded its first H1N1 death when a 23-year old woman died in Miri Hospital on Aug 3. At the moment, H1N1 tests are carried out at Institute of Medical Research in Sungai Buluh, Selangor and more recently, in Kota Kinabalu.

Last week, Dr Chan, who is chairman of the State Disaster Relief Committee, had said H1N1 testing facilities should be made available in Kuching so that positive cases could be immediately identified.

He said the state had been asking for federal funds to purchase similar facilities ever since the Coxsackie outbreak in 1997.

According to an unofficial source yesterday, about 60 students from SMK Padawan had been tested for H1N1 about two weeks ago but to date, their results had yet to be made known.

The source claimed that the students had H1N1 symptoms after visiting a public event held at the Indoor Stadium in Petra Jaya two weeks ago. He said the students did not practise self-quarantine but had been moving freely at the school and public places as usual.

Meanwhile, in Kota Kinabalu, a Bernama report quoted Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai Eight as saying that more deaths relating to A (H1N1) were confirmed yesterday, bringing the death toll to 26 in the country.

He said seven deaths were from the high-risk group and that some were post-reported due to postmortem to study and confirm the cause of deaths.

He said that a death occurred on Aug 3, followed by two more (Aug 5), four (Aug 6) and another (Aug ,” he told reporters at a ceremony to rename Hospital Likas to Hospital Wanita dan Kanak Kanak Sabah here yesterday.

Liow disclosed that two of the cases were from Sabah, the first being one involving an obese 24-year-old woman who was warded at the Ranau Hospital on Aug 1 with fever and cough for four days. She was later referred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) here on Aug 5 and died on the same day.

The other case involved a 74-year-old man with chronic heart disease, who was admitted to QEH on Aug 3, with a history of month-long difficult breathing and fever for just one day. He died on Aug 6.

Liow said at present, there were 62 cases in total, receiving treatment in hospitals and another 13 at intensive care units (ICU), while an additional five suspected H1N1 cases were also at ICU waiting for results.