Announcement

**Shiloh** · October 1, 2009, 08:10 AM

Re: Kuwait Total Deaths - 8

Source: http://www.geo.tv/10-1-2009/50051.htm

GEO World
Infant dies of swine flu in Kuwait
Updated at: 0724 PST, Thursday, October 01, 2009

Infant dies of swine flu in Kuwait KUWAIT: A nine-month-old Kuwaiti baby boy suffering from heart infection and developmental delays died yesterday after being infected with the swine flu virus, bringing Kuwait's total death toll from the disease to eight, the Ministry of Health announced.

The baby, who was taken to a number of hospitals for treatment, was admitted to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Tuesday in a critical condition, but despite being given the necessary antiviral drugs, his immune system proved too weak to fight the disease.

**Shiloh** · October 3, 2009, 06:54 AM

Re: Kuwait Total Deaths - 9

Source: http://www.arabtimesonline.com/kuwai...d=37641&ccid=9

Swine flu claims Kuwaiti teenager

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 2, (Agencies): A Kuwaiti teenager died after being infected with the A (H1N1) or swine flu virus, bringing the death toll to nine, the Health Ministry said on Friday. The deceased, a 14-year-old female with the Down?s syndrome, was also suffering from severe pneumonia and chest pain, as she was hospitalized and admitted into ICU in a critical condition on Sept 25. She was treated with antivirals but was too weak to fight the disease, an official source at the ministry told KUNA. The deceased passed away Thursday night.

Most of swine flu deaths have been those of patients suffering from other illnesses. Most infectees have recovered. The recovery percentage in Kuwait is 99. Children under five years, pregnant women and people suffering from diabetes, asthma and weak immune systems are more prone to the disease. Meanwhile, over 300,000 anti-seasonal flu vaccines, including 145,000 anti-swine flu vaccines, will arrive in Kuwait this month, said a Health Ministry statement Friday. Head of the ministry?s Public Health Program Dr Rashid Al-Owaish told KUNA that the ministry ordered this sum of flu vaccine to better protect people from the infections of both the seasonal flu and the H1N1 virus, adding that the vaccines will be distributed in health centers and hospitals by the end of next week.

The common characteristics of the swine flu and the regular flu makes it very hard to diagnose and treat individuals because both diseases share similar symptoms. The total number of reported swine flu cases in Kuwait has reached 2,881 since April. The Ministry of Health Thursday announced the ministry over the past week has recorded 253 cases of swine flu, reports Al-Seyassah daily. In a press statement, the Ministry said the total number of the cases registered in the country since last April are 2,881, most of them minor and have been completely cured and the patients are leading a normal life.

The Ministry of Education is doing its best to counter the swine flu disease in schools, a statement by the ministry said Friday rebutting MPs? claims that the Ministry was not doing its best in fighting the virus. The statement added that the officials at the Education Ministry were working to their full capacity to make sure that the swine flu was under control in all of the educational facilities in the country. The Ministry will cooperate with other entities such as the Health Ministry to make sure that the health of students and teaching staff was at top level, said the statement, revealing that the Education Ministry had prepared about 120 medical clinics to receive any infection of the swine flu in schools. The Education Ministry said that the ministry?s Undersecretary Council agreed in its last meeting Wednesday to boost the budgets of all schools providing a sum of KD 250 for each school to handle basic anti-swine flu procedures.

WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that as of Sept 27 there have been more than 340,000 laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 worldwide in 2009 and over 4100 deaths reported to WHO. Transmission of influenza virus and rates of influenza-like-illness (ILI) continue to increase in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. In North America, influenza transmission is geographically widespread and continues to increase. Levels of ILI have continued to increase and remain above the seasonal baseline for the past 4 weeks in most regions of the United States.

In Mexico, a high intensity of respiratory diseases has been reported for two consecutive weeks (week 37-38), with large increases in cases being reported in the north and northwest of the country. In Europe and Central and Western Asia, although overall influenza activity remains low an increase in transmission has been noted in a number of countries and continues to intensify in others. Rates of influenza-like-illness continue to be above baseline levels in Ireland, parts of the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland), Israel, and France; in addition, more than 10 other countries in the region have reported geographically localized spread of influenza. In Japan, influenza activity has continued to increase above the seasonal epidemic threshold since week 33.

Vaccine
The H1N1 swine flu pandemic should spur pharmaceutical researchers to renew efforts to develop a universal flu vaccine and rethink ways of dealing with future pandemics, scientists said on Friday. Flu experts from the World Health Organisation, Swiss drug giant Novartis AG, the US National Institutes of Health and others noted that the arrival of H1N1 had prompted a jump in the potential output of vaccine manufacturing to 900 million doses from 400 million. But in a letter to the journal Science, they urged drug and health industries to be more proactive in developing and distributing vaccines ? and in particular to speed up the search for a universal flu vaccine. ?Although the H1N1 pandemic has the potential to cause a social and economic emergency, it also provides an opportunity to rethink our approach to influenza virus disease and to develop more effective vaccines and economically sustainable solutions for developing and developed countries,? they wrote. ?Research toward development of a universal vaccine should be accelerated.?

European drugs regulators recommended Baxter?s Celvapan vaccine against H1N1 flu for approval on Friday and said it expected the shot to get a licence from the European Commission ?shortly?. The recommendation from the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) comes after its expert committee on new drugs also gave a green light last week to the first H1N1 swine flu vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, called Pandemrix and Focetria. Governments and manufacturers have been scrambling for vaccines to target the new H1N1 flu strain, ahead of a feared second wave of infection as the northern hemisphere heads into winter.

**Shiloh** · October 12, 2009, 06:37 AM

Re: Kuwait Total Deaths - 10

Source: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/57016...wine-flu-death

Kuwait health chiefs confirm 10th swine flu death
by Andy Sambidge
on Monday, 12 October 2009

A 47-year-old Arab woman has become the 10th person to die of swine flu in Kuwait, health officials have confirmed.

The Ministry of Health said that the Arab national, who had arrived in the Gulf state recently, was admitted to hospital last Thursday and tested positive for the H1N1 subtype virus.

"She also suffered from hepatitis C virus and asthma. This is the tenth swine flu fatality reported by Kuwait since the first outbreak of the epidemic in April," a statement reported by KUNA News Agency said.

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Kuwait Total Deaths - 10

Kuwait Total Deaths - 10

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