Two died from 'swine flu' in Armenia since the beginning of the year

• Thursday, February 21, 14:10

Since the beginning of the year two died from H1N1 flu, known as 'swine flu' in Armenia: a pregnant woman and a man. Chief Specialist of the State Hygienic and Anti-epidemic Inspection of the Health Ministry of Armenia Liana Torosyan told ArmInfo the patients died as they applied for medical assistance too late and they were suffering also from other diseases.

Torosyan said that there is no flu epidemic or acute respiratory infection in the country. She said that H1N1 is a form of regular seasonal influenza and it is wrong calling it "swine flue". She said that 3-5 million of people die from flu every year in the world.

"The Ministry has repeatedly urged the people suffering from flu to apply for medial assistance timely and avoid self-treatment or antibiotics, because they are inefficient for the given disease," Torosyan.  In 2002 flu had no lethal outcomes in the country. By official statistics, in Jan-Dec 2012 there were registered only 9
cases of flue in the country.  

The outbreak of H1N1 A California 04/2009 form of flu known as 'swine flu' was registered in California in 2009. It mostly passes like usual flu unremarkably within a week until full recovery. However, the heavy form of the disease is progressing rapidly and may have a lethal outcome within 24 hours since the first signs of complication in case of wrong treatment.