Swine flu is rampant in Iran, with already 33 deaths in less than three months. The country’s authorities are asking Iranians to limit travel.
This is very dark news from the Iranian Ministry of Health on Monday when it announced that an epidemic of swine flu was raging in the country. According to his information, 33 people died in less than three months. More than 600 people have also been hospitalized.
The victims are from the provinces of Kerman and Sistan-Balochistan in southern Iran. Seven other provinces, including that of the capital Tehran, are at risk. Iranian authorities have asked residents of the affected provinces to avoid travel within the country as much as possible.
Health and political crisis
Swine flu originates from the influenza A (H1N1) virus. A new strain of this virus was first identified in 2009 in Mexico. It contained a mixture of genes from swine, human and avian influenza viruses, and had never been observed before. The virus then spread to the rest of the world, until it ended up today in Iran.
According to WHO, most often, infection first occurs in individuals in direct contact with pigs, but not by consuming meat. Transmission between men then occurs on certain occasions.
This new health crisis around the swine flu is gradually taking a more political turn. The affected regions border Pakistan, and the Iranian Ministry of Health believes that the epidemic may have come from its neighbor.
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