A 33-year-old pregnant woman has died of Influenza A(H1N1) in Johor, raising to 68 the death toll from the disease, Health director-general Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said today.

However, the country recorded its highest number of new H1N1 cases in a day with 569 infections.

The woman, who was over eight months pregnant, died on Aug 13 due to severe pneumonia and respiratory failure, he said in a statement here.

She had been admitted to a private hospital in Johor Bahru on Aug 8 after having fever and cough for a day, he said, adding that she was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Sultanah Aminah Hospital five days later after having difficulty breathing and was administered the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

Mohd Ismail also said that 195 people were confirmed as being H1N1 positive, 35 of whom were under intensive care at hospitals.

Twenty of the ICU cases had been classified as being in the risk category, with the patients suffering from diabetes (four cases), chronic ailments (five), asthma (two), being pregnant or in post-delivery period (four), being obese (one), being special children (two) and children under one year of age (two).

At the same time, 188 people had been discharged from hospital nationwide, he added.

Difference between normal flu and H1N1

Dr Mohd Ismail also gave pointers on how to differentiate between normal flu and Influenza A(H1N1).

He said a person suffering from Influenza A(H1N1) would have fever exceeding 38 degrees Celsius for three to four days, headache, severe body ache, sore throat and dry cough (in the early stages), and feel excessively tired.

"A person who has normal flu will rarely have fever or have only mild fever (of less than 38 degrees Celsius), have a running nose and will sneeze often," he said.

According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, the H1N1 pandemic is still active in 182 countries and, over the 24 hours up to early today, had infected 3,354 people, raising the cumulative number of cases to 231,269.

There were 207 deaths over the last 24 hours up to early today, taking the cumulative death toll worldwide to 2,353.

The people are advised to keep themselves updated on the developments and preventive measures by surfing the special H1N1 website , or contacting the hotlines 03-88810200 or 03-88810300.