H1N1 FLU: FAMILY OF 21ST VICTIM SAYS DOCTORS AT FAULT

H1N1 FLU: FAMILY OF 21ST VICTIM SAYS DOCTORS AT FAULT

(ANSA) - Rome, November 4 - The family of an H1N1 flu victim who contracted the virus while being treated in hospital for chronic lung disease said Wednesday that doctors were to blame for death.

Chantal Carleo, an 18-year-old Puglia native was in Rome being treated for cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder which, among other symptoms, causes frequent lung infections, coughing and shortness of breath.

Carleo's sister, Silvia Pispico, said she was roomed with other patients and, a week later, started showing symptoms of the virus.

Pispicio said Carleo died after a week-long battle her disorder gave her little hope of winning.

''Doctors should know that a person with cystic fibrosis needs extra protection''.

''You go to the hospital to be treated, and instead my sister died of the flu,'' Pispicio charged, saying that she was reporting the hospital staff to the police.

Carleo was Italy's 21st victim of the H1N1 flu virus, and the third to die on Wednesday after a 51-year-old radiology assistant in Rome and 13-year-old girl with congenital lung disease in Monza.

All of Italy's health victims are said to have suffered from pre-existing health problems except two, a Sicilian woman who died in September and a 12-year-old girl from the Naples suburb of Pompei who died of the flu last weekend.

Despite the rising death toll in Italy, which climbed by 13 over the last week, Junior Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio said Tuesday that there was no cause for alarm.

The health minister said the number of deaths compared to the estimated 250,000 cases of the virus in Italy pointed to a ''very low'' mortality rate.

''This is not a dangerous virus,'' Fazio underlined, adding that around 8,000 Italians die every year of seasonal influenza.