LOC22:02
19:02 GMT
CAIRO, Jan 16 (KUNA) -- Deaths due to H1N1 flu, better known as swine flu,
hit 26 this week in Egypt with most of them of highly pathogenic cases,
spokesman of the Ministry of Health Dr. Abdulrahman Shahin said here Sunday.
He added in a statement that those of chronic diseases and pregnant account
for 75 percent of these highly pathogenic cases.
Shahin added that the efforts made by the monitoring teams from Jan. 9 to
Jan 15 led to detecting 598 cases of swine flu.
However, he said that infection rates are generally on the decline, noting
that lab results of disease observation signal a drop of 73.9 percent along
with a decrease in death rates by 48.8 percent in the winter of (2010-11)
compared to infection and death rates of the pandemic of (2009-10).
He concluded by saying that it is observed that infection rates of the age
group exceeding 40 years old were doubled this winter by 28 percent compared
to 15 percent in the winter of (2009-10), adding that this goes in tandem with
the characteristics of seasonal flu. (end)
ez.aff
KUNA 162202 Jan 11NNNN