Canberra residents should brace for the first swine flu death, with ACT Chief Health Officer Charles Guest warning it is only a matter of time before a fatality occurs.
Australia is on the ''protect'' alert level, which means efforts are focused on the early detection and treatment of those most vulnerable to severe complications if infected with swine flu.
It was inevitable that some healthy people without pre-existing conditions would die, Dr Guest said yesterday.
''The death that had a lot of publicity in the United Kingdom was a very sad event, but such things have happened in Australia before and we prepare in the ACT for the possibility of a death of that kind,'' Dr Guest said.
In Britain, swine flu was linked with the death of Chloe Buckley, who would have celebrated her seventh birthday tomorrow.
She was described as ''perfectly healthy'' in the days before she started feeling ill.
Chloe saw her doctor last Wednesday, complained of flu-like symptoms and died the next day.
Australia's health authorities have confirmed more than 10,000 cases of swine flu infections so far and 123 people are in hospital including 58 in intensive care.
More than 20 Australians with the flu strain called H1N1 have died since the virus started to spread around the country.
Full coverage in today's Canberra Times
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