Iran's swine flu death toll reaches 22

Swine flu has claimed the lives of 22 Iranian people across the country as the national tally of infections rises to 1638, Iran's Health Ministry has said.

"The number of swine flu deaths in Iran has reached 22,” the director of the Health Ministry's Center for Disease Control, Mohammad-Mehdi Gouya, told IRNA on Wednesday.

“Most of the victims include people from seven to twenty four years of age,” he added.

According to Seyyed Ali Yazdikhah, the director of the Education Organization of Tehran Province, at least three Iranian schools were closed on October 26th as a precaution against the spread of the A/H1N1 flu among students.

The country's officials maintain that adopting simple precautionary measures such as washing hands frequently, using a tissue at the time of coughing and sneezing as well as avoiding kissing can help contain the virus.

Iranian authorities had earlier canceled the Umrah (the minor pilgrimage) in the holy month of Ramadan with the aim of containing the A/H1N1 virus.

Iran's first swine flu case was a 16-year-old Iranian-American boy, who tested positive for the disease on June 22, upon his arrival in Tehran.