RAMALLAH – The Palestinian Minister of Health Friday said that a teenage girl died of swine flu complications in the West Bank city of Jenin. As'ad Al-Ramlawi, Director-General of Primary Health Care in the ministry, the 15-year-old girl died of H1N1 virus complications after the Palestinian medical staff in the martyr Khalil Suleiman hospital in the city failed to save her life. He added that her death bring the number of the virus victims in Palestinian territories to four since the start of the season of winter. Al-Ramlawi added that a pregnant woman died Thursday and two other men died of the virus earlier this week. The Palestinian official said that a total of 40 cases are receiving medical treatment from the virus in various West Bank cities. Hundreds of Palestinians were diagnosed with the swine since the first case was discovered in June 2009. Last year, 12 Palestinians died of the virus. Al-Ramlawi expected that the disease will spread in Palestinian territories since it has become seasonal.
He added that his ministry has the needed medications and the expertise to fight it. He urged the Palestinians to seek treatment if they suffer from the virus symptoms. Symptoms of swine flu include a fever, cough, headache, weakness and fatigue, aching muscles and joints, sore throat and a runny nose. Swine flu also called H1N1 flu, swine influenza, hog flu, is an infection caused by any one of the several types of swine influenza virus like H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3. Transmission of the virus from pigs to humans is not common. But people with regular exposure to pigs are at increased risk of swine flu infection.
