Health officials reported that 93 percent of the people who died from influenza last year were not vaccinated, despite the fact that because all were members of high-risk groups, they were eligible to receive the vaccination for free.
Nine of the recent deaths related to influenza involved patients with additoinal health risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, morbid obesity, lung, heart or kidney disease.
Only 30 percent of the health care workers at the Costa Rican hospital with the largest concentration of deaths linked to H1N1 this season were vaccinated.
Max Peralta Hospital in Cartago province, Costa Rica, has confirmed that a patient died last week of complications caused by AH1N1, also known as swine flu.
