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A young asthmatic has become the first Canadian to die in an international outbreak of respiratory enterovirus D68, according to officials. 

Officials said the man, reportedly in his early 20s, had suffered from severe asthma. 

After becoming infected with EV-D68 his health took a sudden turn for the worse, and he died earlier in the week, they said.

The outbreak has affected 538 people, most of them children in 43 states, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

So far, only seven deaths have been associated with the virus in the United States this year. Earlier, there had been one death in Japan in 2010 and one in Philippines in 2008. 

Enterovirus D68 was first discovered in 1962 and has remained fairly uncommon. 

There is no vaccine to prevent EV-D68.