[03/November/2009]

BAIDHA'A, Nov. 03 (Saba) – The Education ministry has closed three more schools after detecting fresh swine flu cases in Baidha'a province in central Yemen.

Swine Flu Monitoring officials in the province said two cases were discovered in girl and boy student schools leading to the closures.

A third case was discovered early this week for a gril out of her school, but the school was closed in a precautionary measure to prevent further spread of the pandemic which has recently soared in the republic.

Two deaths have been reported from the disease so far in Baidha'a, according to the officials, who also confirmed there were ten suspected H1N1 cases.

In mid October, four swine flu cases were detected among the Yemeni students, three of which reported in schools in Sana'a and Hajjah in the north and one school in Aden in the south.

The cases came after more than 5 million students headed to the schools across the republic in early October after the 2009-2010 school year was postponed for two times in September.

Classrooms where the cases were detected were ordered closed as a preventive measure.

The ministry of Public Health and Population also closed a high-school classroom in Sana'a where case was discovered.

Yemen has recently taken further measures to combat the pandemic of H1N1 after it continued to surge bringing the country's total to almost 1618 by October.

Among the measures taken was dispatching teams to raise awareness about the pandemic among the students and the troops.

16 deaths were reported from the flu.

In October the ministry said seven schools were closed across the republic where cases were reported.

Yemen has said it was receiving vaccine doses for the swine flu from the WHO within a program aimed at providing the vaccine for 100 poor and developing countries.

Earlier, the WHO said the pandemic of swine flu will vanish when a large number of the people are vaccinated. It also said that it would distribute the H1N1 vaccine for more than 100 developing states in November.

The organization says the flu is mild after it raised in June the alert about it to the phase six.

On the other hand, Vice President of the World Bank for the MENA region is to pay a visit to Yemen on November 11 to discuss the WB aid for the country to combat the swine flu.

FR
Saba