Duhok General Health Directorate said on Monday (January 13) that four people have died in the governorate after contracting seasonal strains of the influenza virus. Sixty-seven others are suspected to have become infected.
“In Duhok governorate, 24 cases of the H1N1 virus, two H3N2 cases, and eleven cases of influenza type B were recorded. Three out of the 67 cases so far turned out to be negative,” Director of the Protection Department at the Directorate Sirwan Muhammad Aswad said.
Three cases of the H1N1 strain were previously recorded in Akre.
There have been four other fatalities in the Kurdistan Region caused by the virus so far this season, including three people originally from outside Kurdistan Region and an elderly man in Erbil.
The H1N1 influenza virus has multiple strains, one of which is commonly referred to as swine flu, which caused a global pandemic a decade ago. Others are seasonal strains endemic to humans.
The very young and the very old are particularly vulnerable to influenza.