Wednesday, November 18, 2009

MIDDLE EAST/ASIA: Crunching the swine flu numbers

MIDDLE EAST/ASIA: Crunching the swine flu numbers

DUBAI, 18 November 2009 (IRIN) - More people have died from H1N1 influenza in Iran than in any of the 22 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region, according to WHO's 14 November update.

 With 33 deaths to date, Iran made up about 17 percent of the 188 total deaths in the region since May 2009. Saudi Arabia has had 28 deaths, Oman 25 and Syria 22.

 Syria had by far the highest rate of deaths to cases with 9.5 percent of all cases being fatalities. This was followed by Yemen with a 2.5 percent rate, Afghanistan 1.7 percent and Iran 1.5 percent.

 Kuwait had the highest number of cases with 6,640 (23 percent of all 28,751 cases in the region), followed by Saudi Arabia with 4,119; Oman 3,829; and Egypt 2,494.

 Kuwait also had the highest number of cases per capita (populations taken from CIA Factbook) with 2.46 cases per 1,000 in the population, followed by Oman with 1.12 cases per 1,000 and Bahrain with 1.10 cases per 1,000.

 Since WHO's last regional H1N1 update on 7 November, Egypt has had the highest number of new cases, with 850, followed by Iraq with 561, Iran with 515 and Oman with 500.

 Somalia reported its first two cases at the start of November.

 As of 8 November, WHO reported that there were over 503,536 global cases of H1N1 with at least 6,260 deaths. However, it noted that because countries are "no longer required to test and report individual cases, the number of cases reported actually understates the real number of cases".

 WHO segments the world into six regions: Africa, the least affected region, had 2.9 percent of the global total of H1N1 cases; the Eastern Mediterranean Region 5.1 percent; Southeast Asia 8.8 percent; Europe 15.5 percent; the Western Pacific 29.8 percent and the Americas 37.9 percent.

 BOX
 Country Total laboratory-confirmed cases reported by the state parties Total deaths reported by the state parties
 Afghanistan 779 14
 Bahrain 793 6
 Djibouti 9 0
 Egypt 2,494 7
 Iraq 1,835 9
 Iran 2,153 33
 Jordan 2,380 4
 Kuwait 6,640 17
 Lebanon 761 2
 Libya 21 0
 Morocco 824 0
 Oman 3,829 25
 Pakistan 6 1
 Palestine 901 1
 Qatar 23 1
 Saudi Arabia 4,119 28
 Somalia 2 0
 Sudan 21 0
 Syrian Arab Republic 230 22
 Tunisia 141 0
 United Arab Emirates 79 0
 Yemen 711 18
 Total 28,751 188

 ed/cb[END]


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