Iran: Swine flu kills at least 54 people

The outbreak of swine flu in Iran has killed at least 54 people so far in the country over the past month, according to the official figures.

The Associated Press cited the Iranian regime health minister, Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi as saying that 33 of the deaths from the H1N1 virus occurred in southeastern Kerman province.

Hashemi says 600 people who contracted the virus there have been hospitalized, but that the outbreak is now under control.
He says other fatalities occurred in southeastern and southwestern Iran and one person died in Karaj, 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of the capital, Tehran.

Last year, swine flu claimed at least 89 lives in Iran.

The 2009 H1N1 outbreak started a global pandemic that killed as many as half a million people. The strain has been lethal mostly to those with complicating circumstances.