A two-and-half year old Kuwaiti girl suffering from cerebral palsy died on Wednesday after contracting swine flu, the Gulf emirate’s fourth death from the virus, the health ministry said. During the past week, three people died of the A(H1N1) disease, one of them a woman who was in her eighth month of pregnancy and was also suffering from severe inflammation in her respiratory system. Before her death, the woman underwent a caesarian procedure to deliver the baby who survived. About 1,100 people have contracted the A(H1N1) virus in Kuwait but most of them have been treated and discharged from hospital, health officials have said. A number of MPs accused Health Minister Helal al-Sayer on Wednesday of failing to control the disease and called on him to resign or be called to account before parliament. Authorities decided on Tuesday to delay the reopening of foreign schools by two weeks until Sept 10. Arabic schools, which are due to reopen in late September, are not affected by the decision. Several MPs have called on authorities to delay reopening of all schools in fear of the disease spreading among pupils.

Meanwhile, the Development and Reform Bloc has started gathering signatures for its petition to hold an emergency parliamentary session on Sept 6 to deliberate on measures that should be taken to combat swine flu, including a proposal to postpone the opening of the new school year, official spokesperson of the bloc MP Dr Jamaan Al-Harbash said Wednesday. Stating the number of swine flu deaths in the country is increasing at an alarming rate — four in a week, Al-Harbash revealed “we have so far collected 10 signatures for our request to hold the emergency session. According to the Constitution, 35 signatures are required to obtain approval for such requests.”

Refuting allegations that the session is aimed at attacking the government or inspecting concerned authorities, Al-Harbash explained “we requested the emergency session to ascertain the government’s efficiency, look into the steps it intends to take to prevent swine flu outbreak, gauge the level of spread, and identify ways to support institutions in charge of combating the disease.”
Al-Harbash stressed “this is not the right time to settle scores with the government or politicize the issue, because we need to put our acts together to combat this life-threatening disease. Hundreds of people have died due to the virus, including four in Kuwait. Once and for all, we should settle arguments about the opening of schools and the necessary preventive measures as Hajj and Umrah seasons are fast approaching.”

On the contrary, MP Hussein Al-Huraiti argued “intensive meetings between the parliamentary Health Affairs Committee and other authorities will be more beneficial than holding an emergency session. We have no time to talk. We have to act.”
Expressing concern over the rising number of swine flu deaths in the country due to the Ministry of Health’s lack of equipment and preparations to deal with the pandemic, Al-Huraiti pointed out the whole community should shoulder its responsibility to contain the virus. He urged the government to postpone the opening of primary schools until the problem subsides, since delaying the start of the school year for kindergartens and nurseries is not enough. He also stressed the importance of coordinating with international health organizations to ensure ample supply of vaccinations and medications.

Meanwhile, MP Al-Saifi Mubarak Al-Saifi criticized Minister of Health Dr Hilal Al-Sayer for failing to respond properly to a threat as dangerous and worrisome as swine flu. He asked the minister to resign or “prepare for grilling”. He added “the alarming spread of the virus is a manifestation of the ministry’s inability to handle this issue properly, as well as the absence of scientific agenda in the ministry.”
Rejecting lack of equipment or beds in hospitals as reasons behind the ministry’s incompetence, Al-Saifi slammed some hospitals for discharging swine flu patients who have not fully recovered from the disease. He said this irresponsible act has expedited spread of the virus, hence, the rising number of patients. He also asked why the ministry has not equipped emergency mobile hospitals, so they can provide treatment to more patients, instead of sending patients, who have not fully recuperated, home. “The minister lacks the ability to address the problem, so he should resign to give a more competent person a chance to fix his mess,” he concluded.

Analysis
More than half the fatalities from swine flu have been among young adults, according to one of the first surveys to gather mortality data from across the globe for the new A(H1N1) virus.
The analysis of 574 pandemic deaths from 28 countries through mid-July, released this week, also found that being diabetic or obese significantly boosted the risk of dying.
Neither children nor the elderly are as vulnerable as initial reports indicated, found the study, published by Eurosurveillance, the monitoring arm of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
“Most deaths (51 percent) occurred in the age group of 20-to-49 year-olds, but there is considerable variation depending on country or continent,” the researchers reported.
Only 12 percent of those who died were 60 or older.

All of these features — high mortality among young adults and the obese, but not the very young or elderly — are sharply different than for the seasonal flu.
More than 90 percent of deaths from seasonal flu — which claims 250,000 to 500,000 lives annually according to the WHO — are in people over 65.
By contrast, with the pandemic H1N1, “the elderly seem to be protected from infection to some extent, perhaps due to previous exposure to similar strains,” the study conjectured.
Persons born before 1957, other studies have suggested, were almost certainly exposed to the milder seasonal A(H1N1) viruses that evolved from the terrible pandemic of 1918, which left some 40 million dead.
With the 2009 strain, “when infection does occur, however, the percentage of deaths in elderly cases seems to be higher that in others.”
One common target across both pandemic and season strains is pregnant women, according to the study, led by Philippe Barboza of the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance.
On Tuesday, the European Union said pregnant women should have priority in the distribution of vaccines, along with health workers and people with underlying health problems.

Italy
Italy will begin vaccinations against swine flu in November targeting some 8.5 million people considered at risk to the virus, the health ministry announced on Tuesday.
Those over age 65 with chronic health problems along with medical personnel will be the first to be vaccinated, the ministry said.
Postal and telecommunications employees will also be included, said Giuseppe Mele, an official with the ministry.
“We hope to vaccinate 90 percent of those employees” in the first phase of the vaccination to begin in mid-November, he said.
A second phase will begin in January and will target those aged between two and 27.
Italy’s government has announced that it would acquire a total of 48 million doses of the vaccine. The country has a population of some 58 million.
More than 1,500 Italians have contracted the A(H1N1) virus, according to figures provided earlier this week.

US
The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it has authorized the emergency use of a swine flu test for US troops overseas, allowing the military to speed up diagnoses and treatment of a virus that could cause widespread infections again this fall.
The FDA emergency authorization lets the Defense Department distribute the swine flu test to its qualified laboratories that have the right equipment and personnel to perform and interpret test results. The FDA authorized the swine flu diagnostic test for the public in April.
The authorization allows for the use of unapproved medical products or unapproved uses of approved medical products during a public health emergency, the FDA said.
The FDA said the test will help to speed up diagnosis of H1N1 infections so that deployed troops can quickly begin treatment.
The Defense Department be used for combat units in the Middle East and on Navy ships, beginning with deliveries next month, according to a statement from the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense.
The announcement comes as the government is gearing up for the arrival of a vaccine. First supplies are likely by October but most not until the Thanksgiving season.
Swine flu was declared to be a pandemic, or global outbreak, by the World Health Organization in June, and it is expected to make a strong return in the fall and winter. The WHO has said the virus has killed nearly 1,800 people worldwide.

S. Africa
South Africa has no choice but to develop its own H1N1 flu vaccine, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Wednesday, citing concerns treatment will not be available to poorer nations.
“South Africa has arrived at a situation where we have no option but to start developing our own vaccine capacity, not only for H1N1, but generally,” Motsoaledi told parliament.
“The disturbing feature about today’s world... has been expressed by the minister of health for Cambodia... who noted that the developed world, after producing the vaccine, may want to cover their own population first before thinking about the developing world,” Motsoaledi said.
South Africa does have a growing vaccine industry, but is considered by experts to be unlikely to be able to produce a swine flu vaccine any time soon.

Iran
An Iranian drug addict, a woman aged 36, has died after contracting swine flu, the ISNA news agency said on Wednesday, the Islamic Republic’s first reported death from the A(H1N1) virus.
Dr Mahmoud Soroush, head of the health ministry’s programme to control the virus, said the woman had been under treatment after contracting the virus but that she died because of a weak immune system.
“She was suffering from chronic lung disease and was addicted to narcotics. She contracted the virus from an already infected person,” he said.
The agency report did not say when the woman died.
Soroush said 285 people in the Islamic republic are currently suffering from the virus.
As a precaution against the disease spreading, the authorities have banned pilgrims from travelling to Mecca in Saudi Arabia during the current holy month of Ramadan.

Egypt
The Egyptian government said on Tuesday that it will ban Egyptian nationals wishing to perform Hajj (pilgrimage) this year who under 25 years and over 65.
This measure also applies on Egyptians wishing to perform Umra (mini-pilgrimage) in Ramadan.
The decision was made during an emergency cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, the spokesman for Egyptian cabinet Dr Majdi Radhi said in a press release.
The spokesman added government procedures called for Hajj travelers to abide by a new health certificates for Hajj and umra travelers to minimize the risk of spreading the swine flu disease.

Arabtimes