Jordan reports new swine flu death, to start vaccination Tuesday

Amman - A 20-year-old pregnant woman on Sunday became Jordan's 11th swine flu fatality, according to Health Minister Nayef al-Fayez. "This is why the ministry will target pregnant women as one of the high-risk groups in the vaccination campaign against the H1N1 virus due to kick off on Tuesday," al-Fayez said at a press conference.

He reported the discovery of 143 swine flue cases over the past four days that raised to 2,747 the accumulative number of people testing positive to the H1N1 virus so far.

The minister said that 85 of those who had contracted the disease were still receiving medical treatment at hospitals.

He pointed out that 500 Jordanian pilgrims were the first batch to take vaccines before their departure to Saudi Arabia on Monday.

The vaccination campaign due to start on Tuesday "will be voluntary and not compulsory," he added.

The high-risk groups to be targeted in the first vaccination stage will include about 30,000 women in the third trimester of their pregnancy, children between six months and three years of age, 3,100 people suffering from kidney failure and some 10,000 people with severe asthma, he added.

In addition, vaccines have been also allocated for medical staff who work directly with swine flue patients, while some civil defense and public security personnel will also be inoculated, al-Fayez said.

"The limited quantity of vaccines we have obtained so far makes it imperative for us to target these groups in the first stage of the vaccination campaign," he added.

He pointed out that Jordan so far received 100,000 vaccines and expected 12,000 more to arrive this week, while about 1 million doses would be received before the end of the year.