1. Home
  2. Middle East and North Africa
  3. Egypt

Crunching the swine flu numbers

Total number of panedmic H1N1 cases in WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region as of 14 November 2009 WHO
H1N1 cases in WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region as of 14 November. <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2009/originals/200911180725220031.jpg" target=_blank><font color=#006699 size=1><strong>Click here to enlarge</strong></font></a>
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.

Pandemic H1N1 in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

State

Cases

Deaths

Afghanistan 779 14
Bahrain 793 6
Egypt 2,494 7
Islamic Republic of Iran 2,153 33
Iraq 1,835 9
Jordan 2,380 4
Kuwait 6,640 17
Lebanon 761 2
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 21 0
Morocco 824 0
Oman 3,829 25
Pakistan 6 1
Palestine 901 1
Qatar 23 1
Saudi Arabia 4,119 28
Sudan 21 0
Syrian Arab Republic 230 22
Tunisia 141 0
United Arab Emirates 79 0
Yemen 711 18
Total 28,751 188

Source: WHO as of 14 November

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.

ed/cb

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join