A 23 year old tuna cannery worker from Manabi, Ecuador died this week from the H1N1 flu virus, the first of this type of fatality in the province, home to the world’s largest tuna port.
The Health Minister, Carina Vance, reported that the case was registered in the city of Manta, but the young man, identified as Jonathan Estrada Guerrero died Saturday in a hospital in the city of Portoviejo.
So far six people have died across the whole of Ecuador from the virus that is a subtype of Influenza.
The H1N1 virus would not survive the sterilization process in the cannery, which means there is no risk to it affecting the end tuna product. The worry however is for the spread of the illness among the thousands of other employees at the tuna processing plant, which can be prevented with good hygiene to stop the spread of germs.
Health officials confirmed that the virus was the cause of his death, and the man’s aunt, Jaqueline Guerrero said that her nephew, who worked in the tuna processing plant in Manabi suffered from two days of symptoms including “intense coughing and lung pains†before he died.
