AMMAN - The Kingdom has posted its fifth consecutive decline in H1N1 (swine) flu cases, with one new fatality reported over the past week, a Ministry of Health report indicated on Wednesday.
The ministry's weekly swine flu update, issued yesterday, indicated that 25 H1N1 cases were registered between December 2 and 9, down from 29 cases between November 25 and December 2, and 87 the previous week.
The fatality, a 27-year-old man with no previous serious illnesses, raised the Kingdom's swine flu death toll to 15, according to the ministry.
The weekly total represented a major drop from last month, when 264 cases were recorded in the November 11-18 period and 293 between November 4 and 11.
Adel Bilbeisi, director of the ministry's primary healthcare directorate, said the drop may indicate the end of the current "flu wave".
"Flu comes in different waves, and this may be the end of the first wave," he told The Jordan Times yesterday, warning that "people must remain alert" as the presence of swine flu in the country "is not over".
Bilbeisi also noted that the ministry is currently conducting 30-40 swine flu tests daily, compared to hundreds in previous months.
He added that all the new cases were Jordanians, with 28 per cent above the age of 30.
Around one-fourth of the patients in the past week were in the 20-24 age bracket, 24 per cent in the 25-29 age group, 16 per cent below the age of 10 and approximately 8 per cent aged between 10 and 19.
As of Wednesday, the total number of H1N1 cases reported in the Kingdom since the first case was recorded in June, stood at 3,009.
The report also indicated that 8,453 people categorised as high-risk have been inoculated since a vaccination campaign was launched last month.
According to Bilbeisi, no side effects have been reported among those who were vaccinated.
In order to curb the spread of swine flu, the ministry is currently vaccinating those categorised in high-risk groups.
These include 30,000 women in the third trimester of pregnancy, 310 patients suffering from kidney failure, children with type 1 diabetes, people with heart failure, an estimated 109 AIDS patients, some 1,200 thalassaemia patients and 10,000 patients with severe asthma.
In addition, the ministry has allocated 5,000 vaccines for medical staff that are in direct contact with swine flu patients, while some civil defence and public security personnel will also be inoculated.
The Health Ministry is purchasing two million vaccines from Novartis and 250,000 from Glaxo SmithKline, with one million doses to be delivered by the end of the year.
By Khetam Malkawi
© Jordan Times 2009
