Troops Fight Swine Flu Amid Afghan War

[unhappycamper]

Troops Fight Swine Flu Amid Afghan War
November 09, 2009
Associated Press

KABUL - Hundreds of Afghan and international troops already battling a rising militant insurgency are facing a new fight - recovering from swine flu, the virus that has left 11 people dead in the country.

The Ministry of Public Health said Monday that 710 of the 779 cases of H1N1 reported since early July have been among Afghan, U.S. and Italian troops. The 11 people who have died from the virus were all Afghans, including one soldier.

Public Health Minister Dr. Mohammad Amin Fatemi said the Afghan National Army reported 390 cases of H1N1 and 320 cases were identified among foreign troops. Most are U.S. forces stationed at Bagram Air Base and Italian soldiers at the military base in Herat in western Afghanistan.

Worried that the flu could spread unabated through a country in its ninth year of war, the government decided earlier this month to close schools and universities for three weeks. Government health officials advised anyone with a fever to stay home from work, and those with mild symptoms to wear a mask in public places. The flu scare has prompted some people to wear blue surgical masks on the streets of the capital.

The day the government announced the school closings, Fatemi said he urged President Hamid Karzai to refrain from shaking hands with his deputies. That warning prompted Karzai to cancel several meetings that day, said Fatemi, who used hand sanitizer after shaking hands with people at the news conference.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/troops-fight-swine-flu-amid-afghan-war.html?col=1186032310810



unhappycamper comment: The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 ~ 1919 was one of the primary factors ending WW I.