An outbreak of swine flu has left 33 people dead in two provinces of southwestern Iran in the past three weeks, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.
IRNA quoted Deputy Health Minister Ali Akbar Sayyari as saying there had been 28 deaths in Kerman province and five in Sistan-Baluchistan and warning the H1N1 virus was likely to spread to other areas including the capital Tehran.
“The health ministry predicts that the virus will spread in the coming days to Tehran, West and East Azerbaijan and Kermanshah provinces more than to other places,” he said.
Nearly 600 people have been hospitalised in Kerman province over the outbreak, the head of the province’s medical university, Ali Akbar Haghdoost, told the ISNA news agency.