Monday's death was the second fatal case of swine flu in Lithuania in six days. A 14-year old boy in Kaunas died last Wednesday of complications to a A/H1N1 infection. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.

VILNIUS — A 41-year old man died in Visaginas, Lithuania today of swine flu, the country’s Ministry of Health announced Monday. He is the second death from the epidemic in the country.

The man fell ill on Nov. 15 and was admitted to the Visaginas Hospital three days later.

Health Ministry representative Giedrė Maksimaitytė said that he “got all the medication he needed, anti-virus and antibiotics.”

The ministry has not yet confirmed if there were other bacterial complications that lead to his death.

Virus spreading across country

The death came just ahead of a government meeting Tuesday afternoon in which health authorities will decide if the country should declare in a state of emergency, which would close all schools and ban large public gatherings.

Loreta Ašokliene, head of the public health strategy division in the Ministry of Health, said that hospitals and clinics may receive compensation for overtime and that public transportation may be shut down.

As of Monday over one-third of all the schools in the country were closed and 23 municipalities were declared epidemic areas. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control announced Monday that Lithuania, along with eight other countries, have a “high intensity” of the A/H1N1 virus.

The death comes as the ministry’s handling of the outbreak is coming under increasing scrutiny. There are numerous reports in the Lithuanian media about pharmacies lacking flu medication and crowds of patients at hospitals around the country with too few doctors to treat them over the weekend.

Ašokliene said some of the larger hospitals have received new shipments of flu medications and that all municipalities should have new shipments by Tuesday.

She acknowledged the doctor shortages, saying that the ministry is “trying to deal with all of it.”