23 Iraqis among 96 contracted swine flu – ministry

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Twenty-three Iraqis are among a total of 96 patients with the H1N1 strain in Iraq , according to a health ministry official on Sunday. “Sixty-seven Multi-National Force (MNF) soldiers have contracted swine flu. The rest, 23 Iraqis and six foreigners, have been diagnosed as hosts of the virus,” Ihsan Jaafar, the ministry’s public health department chief, told Iraqi News. The 2009 flu pandemic is a global outbreak of a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 , officially named the “new H1N1”, first identified in April 2009, and commonly called “s wine flu.” It is thought to be a reassortment of four known strains of influenza A virus: one indemic in (normally infecting) humans, one endemic in birds, and two endemic in pigs (swine). Transmission of the new strain is human-to-human, with cooked pork products safe to eat as the virus cannot be transmitted by eating foods. “Only one death of the virus was reported in the province of Najaf. Iraq possesses treatment for 85,000 infections,” Jaafar added. The Iraqi health ministry had reported on August 9 the first swine flu death. It was of a 21-year-old woman in Najaf. AmR (S)/SR 1