Chilean health authorities confirmed on Sunday the nation's second death from the deadly new strain of A/H1N1 flu, in which a man of 49 died in a public hospital in southern city Osorno.

The man died on Wednesday, but medical tests only confirmed the diagnosis on Saturday night. He had been connected to a ventilator in the intensive care unit at a public hospital in the city, 900 kilometers south of Santiago, for two weeks.

Chile's first flu death was that of 37-year-old Fernando Vera Maldonado, on Monday in a hospital in Port Montt.

On Friday, the Health Ministry reported a total infected cases of 890, making Chile Latin America's second most infected nation, after Mexico. Worldwide, Chile is in fifth place, after the United States, Mexico, Canada and Australia.

The flu causes headaches, breathing difficulties, excess mucus, muscular pain and fever. The vast majority can be treated successfully, providing patients receive anti-viral medicine within five days of presenting symptoms.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2009)