An A/H1N1 flu outbreak would be worse in remote Australian indigenous communities due to "squalid conditions" with more deaths a possibility, a child health expert warned on Monday.

The warning came after a 26-year-old indigenous man from the remote Aboriginal community of Kiwirrkurra became Australia's first A/H1N1 flu fatality last Friday, who died in Royal Adelaide Hospital a day after he was diagnosed with the disease.

Anne Chang, a pediatric respiratory physician who works closely with remote indigenous communities in Queensland and the Northern Territory, said it was inevitable A/H1N1 flu would reach remote Aboriginal communities.

"An outbreak in those communities would be quite severe -- a lot of children would probably need to be hospitalized and deaths are a possibility," Chang told Australian Associated Press.

"Because these people are living in squalor conditions any outbreak is usually worse than elsewhere," she said.

Chang revealed one in 70 Aboriginal children in remote communities across Australia suffer from chronic lung disease.

"The adults also have a high incidence of chronic lung disease, they also have other risk factors which include diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart and kidney disease," she said.

West Australian health officials will assess Kiwirrkurra residents this week.

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2009)