A young child from the Fraser Health region has become the first known person in British Columbia to die from swine flu.

The child, who had underlying medical conditions that increased the risk of influenza complications, was admitted to hospital on July 12 and died within 24 hours of admission.

According to an information bulletin from the B.C. government, another young woman in the same health region has also died “in connection” with the H1N1 influenza pandemic.

“While this patient was not confirmed to have the H1N1 influenza virus herself, she resided with a person who did have the virus,” the update, issued at 5 p.m. today (July 14), states.

Twenty-two new cases of swine flu have been confirmed since yesterday (July 13), meaning there’s now a total of 382 cases across the province.

The new cases include six in Vancouver Coastal Health, 14 in Fraser Health, and two in Interior Health.

The Fraser Health region covers an area that extends from Burnaby and Delta to Hope.

The “vast majority” of cases in the province are “mild cases with patients either recovered or currently recovering”, according to the bulletin.

Yesterday, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported a total of 9,855 laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu, including 39 deaths, across the country.

On June 11, the World Health Organization raised its alert level to phase 6, declaring the swine flu outbreak a pandemic.

A July 6 update from WHO noted the existence of 94,512 lab-confirmed cases and 429 deaths from H1N1 worldwide.

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