Israel confirms second swine flu death

A 24-year-old woman who died in a Nahariya hospital Saturday night had been ill with swine flu, the Health Ministry confirmed Sunday, reported Haaretz.

The woman, identified as Jihan Musa of the western Galilee village of Tarshiha, was the second Israeli confirmed to have died after contracting the virus.

The hospital's manager, Massad Barhum, told Haaretz that the woman had arrived at the hospital on the weekend after receiving treatment at an emergency room for a serious inflammation of the lungs.

Barhum said she was placed in intensive care but died Saturday night.

Last week the first swine flu death in Israel was recorded when Eilat resident Shimon Azran, 35, died at the city's Yoseftal Medical Center.

A 44-year-old Tel Aviv man who had been hospitalized with swine flu at Ichilov Hospital and then recovered, died Friday night of complications from a bacterial infection.

Ichilov stressed that the patient had not died of swine flu.