SWINE FLU CLOSES 3 MORE YEMEN SCHOOLS

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