One woman dead, 10 hospitalized in swine flu outbreak

One woman has died of swine flu and another ten people have been hospitalized with the disease. Four of them are on artificial respiration.

The dead woman, in her 50s, was diagnosed with swine flu weeks ago and had been attached to a heart and lung machine for a month, fighting for her life.

The woman, who was not immediately named Thursday, was hospitalized at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva along with one other woman infected by the virus.

Four women are hospitalized at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba with the disease, three of them pregnant. The four women had come to Soroka complaining of flu symptoms. Tests showed they were infected with H1N1, popularly known as swine flu.

The baby of one had to be delivered by emergency Caesarian section on Wednesday, Channel 2 reported Thursday.

Five women have been hospitalized in Jerusalem, the health ministry confirmed — three at Shaare Zedek, where one, a woman in her 40s, is on artificial respiration in the emergency ward and another, in her 20s, is being tested for the virus, according to news reports. One woman is hospitalized at the capital’s Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem and another at Hadassah, Mount Scopus. In central Israel, one person has been diagnosed with the flu at Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv and one at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan, a Health Ministry spokesperson said.

The Health Ministry added that some of the sick have other conditions which make them more susceptible to flu complications. These include heart disease, diabetes, Down’s Syndrome and pregnancy. The ministry called on the public – especially children, pregnant woman and people with other illnesses — to get vaccinated against the potentially deadly infection.

A 25-year-old woman who arrived at Soroka with lung failure had to give birth by C-section in her seventh month and is on artificial respiration in the emergency section of Soroka’s Internal Medicine Department, while the baby has been transferred in stable condition to the premature births emergency unit.

A 57-year-old woman whose health is defined as high-risk is also on a respirator in Soroka’s internal medicine emergency section unit.

The hospital said that none of the victims had been vaccinated against the flu and that the cases have been reported to the Health Ministry. The condition of two of the infected women is improving and they are being kept in isolation.

Dr. Lior Nesher, an expert in infectious diseases at Soroka Hospital, told Ynet: “We are seeing many sick people who are being hospitalized with serious swine flu, but who are not necessarily getting to the emergency ward. We are seeing two to three new cases per day, and the season only started a few weeks ago.”

The H1N1 virus became a global pandemic in 2009, and has killed thousands around the world since, including at least five in Israel.

Some 1.46 million Israelis have been vaccinated so far this season against flu – the injection includes inoculation against swine flu – including 60 percent of elderly people and around 20% of babies and children up to age six, the Israel Hayom newspaper reported on Thursday.