There are no equipment and other facilities to prevent the nurses from contracting this deadly disease, it says in a statement.

Two influenza patients have died, while two others are receiving treatment at Chilaw district hospital.

All of them, recent returnees from pilgrimage in India, had been admitted with complaints of mild fever.

The hospital staff treating them is not supplied with the N95 respirators, aprons and gloves adequately.

The union says separate wards should be set up, or all the patients warded at the IDH Hospital.

It urges authorities to pay immediate attention to this matter.

Staff having sore throat

When contacted, medical superintendent of Chilaw district hospital Anusha Fernando said some of the staff members who had treated the two dead patients suffered from a sore throat.

Their phlegm samples have been sent for tests.

She urged returnees from India having fever or respiratory illnesses to seek immediate treatment from a government hospital.

The two dead patients had not contracted H1N1 influenza, but some other unidentified variant of influenza, she added.