Chilean health authorities on Sunday confirmed a second case of the A/H1N1 flu, hours after the first case was confirmed.
Both victims were women over 30 who had arrived in Chile from the Dominican Republic. The second woman is a friend of the first, who had arrived from Punta Cana, aboard Copa Airlines flight 437.
That flight carried over 100 people and health authorities are now working hard to locate all of those aboard, Health Minister Alvaro Erazo told reporters.
Earlier in the day, Erazo said the first woman had been quarantined at the Thorax Hospital in the capital and was receiving anti-viral treatment.
He said the fever scanner installed at the airport terminal had shown effectiveness, "allowing us appropriate detection and information of every person entering the country."
Sources at Copa Airlines said they were cooperating with authorities in seeking passengers on the Saturday flight.
The World Health Organization said that there are now 8,451 cases of the disease worldwide, but only six deaths outside of Mexico, with four in the United States and one each in Canada and Costa Rica. The United States now has 4,714 cases of the flu, the largest number across the globe.
(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2009)
