China has reported its first death of A/H1N1 influenza on Tuesday, according to a Health Ministry statement on its website.

An 18-year-old woman in Maizhokunggar County, Lhasa City died of the A/H1N1 virus at about 3:20 AM on Sunday at the county hospital. She was taken to the hospital on Saturday for coughing, sore throat and muscular stiffness. Her body temperature was as high as 40 degrees, a Tibetan regional health department official said Tuesday.

The case has been confirmed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, he said.

The Health Ministry sent 200,000 doses of vaccine to Lhasa by air on Tuesday to help contain the virus from spreading in the region. More vaccines will be sent to the western and plateau provinces soon.

The national capital Beijing reported its first A/H1N1 case with heavy sysptoms on Tuesday, a municipal health bureau official said.

The 72-year-old man is receiving treatment with breathing machine at the Beijing Ditan Hospital. He had suffered the chronic obstructive lung diseases for about 20 years. He was confirmed to be infected with the A/H1N1 on Friday with a body temperature as high as 38.5 degrees, he said.

Beijing had reported 2,181 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 influenza by Monday afternoon, about 83.6 percent of which had recovered, according to the municipal health bureau.

The Chinese mainland had reported 21,453 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 influenza by Tuesday, about 78.7 percent of which had recovered, according to a notice on the website of the Ministry of Health.

A total of 13 cases with heavy symptoms had been reported, of whom eight has recovered, the notice showed.

The ministry held a tele-conference on Tuesday, asking the local health authorities to strengthen the monitoring and control of the virus outbreak, especially in the remote and border areas.

Wang Chen, chief of the Health Ministry's A/H1N1 expert panel, said that a series of prevention and medical treatment efforts for the people infected with the flu's virus had effectively delayed the spread of A/H1N1 in Chinese mainland and gained time for the research and manufacture of the flu's vaccines.

"It is inevitable to have increasing cases with heavy symptoms and even death cases since the flu season has arrived," Wang said, adding that the most important thing to do for the moment is to identify high risk group of people to reduce infected cases with heavy symptoms.

Xi Xiuming, another expert with the ministry's expert panel, said the first death case occurred in a grass root remote hospital, which means that it is very essential to increase the medical treatment and rescue abilities for the A/H1N1 of medical institutions in remote regions.

According to the ministry's website, there have been at least 343,298 confirmed infection cases of the A/H1N1 influenza as of Tuesday in 190 countries and regions, 4,108 of which had died.

(Xinhua News Agency October 7, 2009)