Seven swine flu deaths in Iraq since May

Seven people have died of swine flu in Iraq since May, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

BAGHDAD, November 3, 2009 (AFP) -Seven people have died of swine flu in Iraq since May, the health ministry said on Tuesday , announcing the first deaths in the violence-ravaged country caused by the A(H1N1) virus.

Five people died of swine flu in Baghdad, one in the southern port city of Basra and another in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf in central Iraq, health ministry spokesman Sabah Abdullah told AFP.

"Since May, seven people have died of the A(H1N1) virus in Iraq, including a woman in Najaf and a child in Baghdad," Abdullah said. The latest victim, a man, died in the capital's Kindi hospital on Monday.

He said a total of 350 Iraqis have been infected since May, including 154 in Baghdad, with swine flu cases affecting 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces. On October 27, the government allocated 160 million dollars to buy vaccines.

Several schools in Baghdad and two provinces in the south were closed for a week last month as a precaution against the spread of swine flu. Universities were not affected.

The Kurdish region of northern Iraq recorded a spate of A(H1N1) cases in June, without reporting deaths.

Apart from Iraqis, 448 US soldiers have also been infected, an American military spokesman told AFP, with no deaths reported in the force which has been deployed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.

More than 5,700 people have died of swine flu worldwide since A(H1N1) was first uncovered in April, with most of the deaths recorded in the Americas, according to the World Health Organisation.