Nasiriyah, October 20: Two southern Iraqi provinces will shut their nearly 2,500 schools this week in a bid to combat swine flu, officials said on Tuesday.
The mass closures in Dhi Qar and Wassit provinces, due to start on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, are Iraq’s first since the A(H1N1) virus was first reported in Mexico in April.
Universities, however, will remain open in both provinces.
“We took the decision to close the schools because we are afraid for the health of our students,” Dhi Qar’s environmental director Raji Naeema said.
“School bathrooms are dirty, drinking water is not clean and the classes are so crowded.”
In all, 1,477 schools will be closed in Dhi Qar for 10 days, beginning Thursday, affecting around 393,000 pupils.
Dhi Qar’s health chief Hadi Badr al-Rayahi said a 22-year-old man had been diagnosed with the virus and was being treated in Al-Refaie hospital, 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of the provincial capital Nasiriyah.
In Wassit province, some 980 schools will be shut from Wednesday for five days after several students at one of the province’s schools were diagnosed with A(H1N1).
“The decision was taken to prevent a spread of influenza and an increase in the number of cases,” Sunduz Faisal, a senior Wassit official, said.
Provincial health chief Maher Gaanem Murad confirmed “31 cases at a secondary school in the al-Hai district.”
The A(H1N1) virus has killed at least 4,735 people since it was first reported in April in Mexico, according to a WHO tally. Most deaths have occurred in the Americas, where 3,406 have been reported.
In total, Iraq has seen 472 cases, the majority in US troops stationed in the country, health services director Isan Jaffar said on Monday.
—Agencies