Azernews.Az

Eight more people have been diagnosed with the A/H1N1 virus (swine flu) in Azerbaijan, bringing the number of infected persons in the country to eleven, according to official estimates.
Three of them were infected while in Ukraine, one has returned from Turkey and one more is a foreigner who arrived from Britain.
The other three are residents of Baku who have been in contact with the person who initially contracted the A/H1N1 strain. All the patients are in satisfactory condition, the Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The first three cases of infection with the virus were reported in Azerbaijan on November 4-5. One of the patients is a 40-year-old woman, a resident of the Kurdamir district who had temporarily lived in Ukraine’s Ivanovo-Frankovsk province and returned to Azerbaijan in late October. Another patient is a middle-aged woman who is a relative of the person who came back to Azerbaijan from Ukraine by train and was diagnosed with the A/H1N1 strain within a day of returning. The other virus carrier is a man who returned from Ukraine last month.
Two of the patients were being treated at the Institute of Lung Diseases in Baku. One of them – the Kurdamir district’s relative – was discharged from hospital on Monday. The other patient, the 30-year-old man, whose illness is in its initial phase, is undergoing treatment at home.
All medical institutions operating under the Health Ministry have stepped up work in light of the reported swine flu infections, and the ministry has instructed doctors to carry out prevention of the virus in enterprises.
The first batch of vaccine used against the virus, allocated to Azerbaijan by the World Health Organization (WHO) free of charge, is to be delivered in late November, health officials say.
The State Customs Committee is working to prevent the spread of the H1N1 strain, and, if infected persons or people suspected of having contracted the virus are detected on customs checkpoints, special locations supplied with all the necessary items have been designated to temporarily isolate them. Moreover, disinfection is being carried out on vehicles at border crossings, and special devices allowing to remotely measure the temperature of a human body are being installed there.
Concerns over the threat of swine flu mounted in Azerbaijan in July when two persons - residents of Baku and the northwestern city of Ganja – contracted the virus while in France and Britain. The two were subsequently treated and cured.
Swine flu, which began to spread rapidly this spring, has killed 6,200 people around the world so far, and over 420,000 people are infected with the strain, the WHO estimates.
Ukraine’s health officials announced an epidemic of swine flu on October 30. Azerbaijan has delivered 20 tons of aid to Ukraine to help fight the deadly virus, which has already claimed 95 lives in the country. The assistance includes medicine, protective masks and other basic items needed to counter the H1N1 strain.*