Medical Expert Questions China's H1N1 Death Toll 

2009-11-23 14:56

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According to China’s Ministry of Health, more than 69,000 people have been diagnosed with the H1N1 flu. They’ve put the official death toll at 53 people. But a doctor in Guangdong province says the actual death toll is likely to be much higher.

Zhong Nanshan heads the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases. He’s best known for his efforts to expose China’s SARS cover-up in 2003.

In an interview with the Southern Metropolis Daily on Thursday, Zhong suggested that some local officials were covering up the real death toll in their regions. Officials may fear that showing a large number of cases could hurt their careers.

According to the article, Zhong said some hospitals were not testing deaths from severe pneumonia to see if the people had actually died from the H1N1 virus.

He told the newspaper, quote, “It’s irresponsible to treat these cases as ordinary pneumonia deaths.”

The H1N1 flu affects patients’ respiratory tracts.  In most cases, patients who become seriously ill or die suffer from pneumonia.