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EPIDEMICS
Swine flu 'second wave' begins in Saudi: minister


Afghanistan shuts schools over swine flu
Afghanistan on Sunday ordered the closure of all schools for three weeks after recording its first death from swine flu, the country's education minister said. "In order to safeguard the health of all Afghans... all public and private schools will be shut for three weeks" from Monday, Farouq Wardak said in a statement. The move comes after an engineer from Kabul last week became the first Afghan to die of the (A)H1N1 virus. There are about 7.5 million students and teachers in Afghanistan, the statement said. The A(H1N1) virus was first detected in Afghanistan in July among American soldiers stationed at the Bagram military base, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Kabul. The infections were discovered during a general health check-up among the troops at the base. More than 5,700 people have died of swine flu worldwide since the virus was first uncovered in April, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday. Nearly 4,200 of the deaths were recorded in the Americas region, it said.

Fourth person dies of swine flu in Turkey: ministry
A 27-year-old medical worker has died from swine flu in Turkey, taking the national death toll from A(H1N1) to four, the health ministry said on Sunday. The patient, who died in the capital Ankara, was among the 32 people under treatment in hospitals for the infection, the ministry said in a statement. Seven of the patients were in serious condition and were being treated in intensive care units, it added. Turkey has recorded 1,870 cases of swine flu since May when the disease was first diagnosed. The health ministry said that it will begin vaccinating medical workers on Monday against the A(H1N1) virus before moving onto other at-risk groups. Officials have said that they plan to buy a total of 43 million doses of the vaccine and administer it to some 28 million people.
by Staff Writers
 Riyadh (AFP) Oct 30, 2009
 A second wave of swine flu has begun in Saudi Arabia, the health ministry said on Friday, as the death toll from A(H1N1) neared 60 just weeks before the annual hajj brings two million pilgrims to the country.

"The ministry of health said a second wave of the swine flu virus began in early October with the beginning of the fall and cooler weather," the official SPA news agency reported.

"The ministry has recorded a rise in the number of cases in the kingdom, as is the case in other countries of the northern hemisphere... which has led to an increase in deaths from the disease," it said.

The ministry gave no figures, but ministry spokesman Khaled Marghlani said on Wednesday that swine flu deaths had reached 59 this week, according to media reports.

Saudi Arabic stopped regular public updates of swine flu figures in September, when already the number of cases topped 4,000.

Several schools were closed around the country during the past week and the authorities are girding for the possibility that swine flu cases could rocket with the arrival of more than two million pilgrims in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for the hajj over the next three weeks.

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EPIDEMICS
Britain aims to complete first swine flu vaccinations within weeks
 London (AFP) Oct 29, 2009
 Britons with the highest risk of catching swine flu should receive vaccinations by mid-December, the government said Thursday as the numbers catching the illness rose. Health workers, pregnant women and people suffering from cancer, diabetes, heart disease and asthma are first in line for the injections. Ian Dalton, the national director for flu resilience, said all family doctors in ... read more






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