The number of people killed in Latvian road traffic accidents dramatically decreased last year, but the country still has one of the highest death rates in Europe, according to a report from the Brussels-based European Transport Safety Council (ETSC).

Traffic deaths in Latvia dropped 25 percent from 2007 to 2008, according to the ETSC. Data from the Latvian government’s Road Traffic Safety Directorate (Ceļu satiksmes drošības direkcija, or CSDD) show that 316 persons were killed last year, compared to 419 in 2007.

“The reduction in road deaths in 2008 can be partly attributed to reduced traffic volume following the recent economic recession and relatively high petrol prices earlier in the year,” the ETSC said in its report.

The highest number of traffic deaths in Latvia in one year, 923, was recorded in 1991.

Since 2001, traffic deaths in Latvia have dropped 43 percent. As a result, the nation earned a 2009 Road Safety PIN (Performance Index) Award during the ETSC’s recent conference in Brussels, the council announced in a June 22 press release.

Across the 27 member states of the European Union, about 39,000 people were killed in traffic accidents last year. The number is far from the goal of just 27,000 fatalities the European Union set in its road safety target, which calls for cutting the number of traffic deaths by half from 2001 to 2010. About 55,000 people died in European traffic accidents in 2001.

Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are the safest countries in the EU, based on the number of fatal accidents per 1 million inhabitants, according to the ETSC. Sweden recorded a rate of 43 per 1 million in 2008. (Malta had a lower rate, 37 deaths per million, but the ETSC noted that special conditions exist in the country that affect the number.)

Latvia, which in 2001 had the worst record (234 deaths per 1 million inhabitants), recorded 139 fatalities per million inhabitants in 2008. That rate remains high, according to the ETSC, considering the average across countries tracked in the index last year was at 78 deaths per million.

One of the most important measures in reducing fatalities in Latvia was the introduction in 2004 of a penalty point system for drivers, Aldis Lama of the CSDD said in the ETSC’s report.

Lithuania now has the worst traffic death rate, recording 148 deaths per 1 million inhabitants. Estonia had 98 deaths per million, according to the ETSC.

A woman who traveled to the United States and Canada is the first verified case of the H1N1 flu in Latvia, the Public Health Agency in Rīga has announced.

The woman returned to Latvia on June 21 on a Berlin to Rīga flight on airBaltic, the agency said in a June 23 press release. The woman exhibited symptoms on the flight and was hospitalized as soon as the flight landed.

The agency has recommended that passengers who were on the flight monitor their health during the next five days. Symptoms of H1N1, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), are flu-like and include fever, cough, headache, muscle and joint pain, sore throat and runny nose. If such symptoms are observed, a spokesperson for the Latvian agency said, the person should contact their family physician or the Public Health Agency’s epidemiologist at +371 67271738.

Health officials were prepared for this first case in Latvia, the agency said in the press release. The agency has notified German officials of the case so they can organize assistance for passengers who traveled with the woman from Canada to Germany.

WHO on June 11 labeled the spread of the virus as a pandemic.

“Globally, we have good reason to believe that this pandemic, at least in its early days, will be of moderate severity,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chen said in a statement. “As we know from experience, severity can vary, depending on many factors, from one country to another. On present evidence, the overwhelming majority of patients experience mild symptoms and make a rapid and full recovery, often in the absence of any form of medical treatment.”

According to WHO, a total of 52,160 cases of H1N1 have been reported around the word as of June 22. In all, 231 people have died as a result of the virus. No cases of the virus have been reported in Lithuania, but Estonia has had five. The United States, Mexico and Canada remain the top three countries in the number of infections.