And the state added to its list of swine flu deaths two people who died in October but were missed in earlier counts. The three bring the total number of Alaska swine flu deaths to nine.
In the most recent case, an Anchorage woman who had multiple health problems before she caught the flu died Nov. 4 at Providence Alaska Medical Center, said Greg Wilkinson of the state health department.
Two men whose deaths were previously unreported died Oct. 4. The men were missed because the state initially only checked on people who had been admitted to a hospital, died there, and clearly had swine flu, said Dr. Louisa Castrodale from the state epidemiology office. Now the state has expanded its reporting net.
One of the Oct. 4 deaths was a man in his 20s who died in the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital emergency room. The man had not been admitted.
The other person was a man in his 80s from Anchorage. He died in an Anchorage hospital, but the fact that he tested positive for swine flu wasn't known until a few days later, said Castrodale.
Both of the men had significant health conditions before they contracted swine flu, she said.
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