SWINE FLU : Algeria counts 32 deaths and 553 confirmed cases

Death toll related to influenza A/H1N1 rises in Algeria, as eight new cases were registered in the last 48 hours, bringing the number to 32.553 confirmed cases and 8000 probable cases, said Thursday the Ministry of Health and Hospital Reform. 

• The Ministry confirmed that the causal link between the deaths and the swine flu has not yet been confirmed for all the deaths, as the new eight victims had respiratory problems or live with chronic diseases.
• Estimates of the cumulative number of probable cases, which serve as indicators for the adaptation of  a new strategy to fight against this pandepic, « is prepared with the new data from the network of control and surveillance of the spread of the swine flu pandemic based on the 34 sentinel centers that were established on July 13, 2009 », said the statment.  
• Previously, The Minister of Health, Population and Hospital Reform, Said Barkat, declared that Algeria received 700 thousand doses of swine flu vaccine, and that they are submitted to control and analysis by Pasteur Institute and the National Laboratory for Controlling Pharmaceutical products, as well as the National Center for Toxicology.
• « At least two weeks are needed to finish these controls », the Minister says.
• Said Barkat also stressed that the swine flu vaccine, imported by Algeria, is not dangerous, as confirmed by the WHO.
• Algeria will receive, until the end of December, 300 thousand doses out of 20 million which will be received until May 2010, that are directed primarily for health workers, customs officials and airports and ports, then to the security agents and pregnant women, and then infants, pupils and all the Algerian citizens under 24. 
• The number of swine flu cases in Algeria reaches Tuesday 476 cases, of which 24 deaths, as this pandemic is spread over 208 regions of the world, killing 9596 persons.
• Senior World Health Organisation official Keiji Fukuda said Thursday that it was too early to declare the swine flu pandemic over, as it continues at “high levels” in parts of Europe and central Asia.

  Although the A(H1N1) flu virus is peaking in parts of the northern hemisphere and is hardly present in the south, Fukuda said there was an unproven possibility that there could be another wave later in the winter.

• “It really probably remains too early to call the pandemic over,” Fukuda said in a weekly telephone news conference.
• These statments confirm that may not be the end of swine flu pandemic yet.