A young woman has died of swine flu three weeks after doctors were forced to deliver her baby by caesarean section because of complications brought on by the virus. The Pakistani woman arrived at Dubai Hospital in early August suffering severe respiratory problems. She was admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit and later sent to the labour ward so doctors could deliver her baby.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has repeatedly put pregnant women high on its list of those most at risk of suffering severe or fatal complications because of the virus. It is understood the woman had previously visited another hospital and was advised to take tamiflu, the antiviral used to treat the virus, but refused because she was concerned about its effects on her unborn baby. According to officials, the woman is now the second person to die from the H1N1 virus in the UAE after a 63-year-old Indian man died two weeks ago.
munderwood@thenational.ae