REFUGEE

BEIJING: China on Tuesday announced its first swine flu death, saying a patient in its southwestern Tibet region had died from the disease and

warning the threat from the disease could soon worsen.

In response, the government had "urgently" sent 200,000 doses of influenza A (H1N1) vaccine to the region since Sunday's death in a bid to contain the virus, China's health ministry said in a statement on its website.

"An influenza A (H1N1) sufferer in the region died after efforts to save the sufferer failed," it said.

"This is our first domestic report of a swine flu death," said the statement, which gave no further details on the victim.

However, state-run Xinhua news agency said in a report from the Tibetan regional capital Lhasa that the victim was an 18-year-old female who entered a hospital in the city on Saturday with severe flu symptoms.

China -- hit hard in the past by bird flu and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) -- took swift and tough measures against the virus when it first emerged in the Americas.

This included strictly quarantining scores of foreign tourists and students merely for arriving on flights on which a virus sufferer was found.

But China has warned of a spike in cases -- and deaths -- during the winter flu season.