Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has ordered the immediate vaccination of all school and university students against H1N1, commonly known as swine flu. The prime minister called for the import of 4 million doses of the vaccine for this purpose.
Council of Ministers spokesman Magdy Rady said after a cabinet meeting Wednesday that vaccination would start in the cities with most infections. "Parents refusing to give the vaccine to their children will have to declare so in writing," Rady said.
The Ministry of Health issued a statement saying that the World Health Organization has confirmed that the vaccine is safe and and did not cause paralysis in 12 cases around the world, as early reports asserted.
Health Minister Hatem el-Gabali admitted that the swine flu death rate in Egypt went up by one percent, with 96 fatalities from a total confirmed infections of 8300 cases, of which 40 percent were among school and university students.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
