Spanish Tourist Dies from Swine Flu in Colombia

Spanish Tourist Dies from Swine Flu in Colombia

A Spanish tourist hospitalized in Barranquilla, a city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, with swine flu symptoms died after it was confirmed that he had contracted the disease, health officials said.

The 61-year-old tourist died early Saturday at the clinic where he had been admitted on Jan. 3, acting Barranquilla Health Secretary Dr. Humberto Mendoza said. The patient had contracted the AH1N1 virus, Mendoza said in a press conference.

The case was confirmed Friday by the National Health Institute, or INS, Mendoza said, adding that the Spanish citizen entered Colombia on Dec. 28 through Bogota and by the morning of the next day he arrived in Barranquilla.

The man, “on Jan. 2, 2011, consulted (a doctor) reporting four previous days of fever, general malaise, throat pain, intense headache, dry cough,” Mendoza said. The preliminary diagnosis was that he was suffering from an acute viral respiratory infection, the Barranquilla Health Secretariat said in a statement.

The patient’s health then began to decline markedly and that led him to go to the doctor again last Monday, Mendoza said. The tourist also had problems with blood sugar regulation, diabetes and kidney function.

Seven people who were in contact with the patient were identified and located, and they are receiving the appropriate treatment to prevent them from possibly transmitting the virus, Mendoza said.

The Spaniard’s case is imported and he contracted the disease abroad, Mendoza said. The Spaniard is the 197th fatality from swine flu in Colombia, where up until the end of last December 3,405 cases of the disease had been reported.