H1N1 UPDATE: FIRST DEATH AS GERMANY HITS 20,000 MARK

UNCLAS BERLIN 001201 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/CE PETER SCHROEDER STATE FOR OES/IHB STATE FOR AID/GH/HIDN USDA PASS TO APHIS HHS PASS TO CDC HHS FOR OGHA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO KFLU ECON PREL SOCI CASC GM SUBJECT: H1N1 UPDATE: FIRST DEATH AS GERMANY HITS 20,000 MARK REF: A) Berlin 1163, B) Berlin 1115 and previous. ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: The number of confirmed H1N1 infections in Germany rose by 175 cases over the weekend to a total of 20,068 on September 28. Germany reported its first suspected H1N1 death. END SUMMARY ¶2. (U) At its September 28 press briefing, the National Reference Center for Influenza at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) confirmed a total of 175 new (laboratory and non- laboratory) H1N1 cases in Germany over the weekend, increasing the total number of H1N1 cases to 20,068. New cases were distributed among the eleven federal states as follows: Bavaria (47),North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) (22),Baden- Wuerttemberg (21),Brandenburg (17),Lower-Saxony (13),Hesse (15),Thuringia (13),Saxony-Anhalt (13) and Rhineland- Palatinate (8),Schleswig-Holstein (5) and Bremen (1). ¶3. (U) According to RKI, only 45 of the total 175 new cases are attributed to people returning from travel abroad. New cases include non-laboratory H1N1 cases that exhibited symptoms after being in contact with a laboratory-confirmed infected person. ¶4. (U) NRW remains the German state with the highest number of confirmed virus cases with a total of 5,750, followed by Baden-Wuerttemberg (3,072 cases) and Lower-Saxony (2,734). The number of all confirmed infections in Germany that have resulted from domestic transmission is 30 percent. First German H1N1 Death -------------- ¶5. (U) According to information from RKI, a 36-year old woman from Gelsenkirchen (North Rhine-Westphalia) is the first person in Germany to die from the virus. She died on September 25 from what appear to be complications from the H1N1 virus. The woman was considered a "risk patient" in a hospital in Essen and had underlying health conditions (diabetes, overweight, smoker, lung problems). According to RKI, H1N1 was found in her blood and is considered a factor in her death. RKI sought to reassure the public that there is no need to panic, clarifying that in Germany, 8,000 to 11,000 patients die every year from seasonal influenza. MURPHY