Health Ministry spokesperson Dr. Ahmed Kamel said there have been 16 swine flu deaths and 172 infected cases since last December, adding that the doctors who have died recently did not die of swine flu, but of other causes.

 

“We had not had any swine flu cases since April 2013,” he said.

 

He said that all employees of fever and chest hospitals have been vaccinated. “We provided hospitals with 80,000 doses,” he said.

 

However, the Doctors Syndicate said it is holding a press conference on Tuesday to addresses the issue of the four doctors who died of swine flu, which Dr. Nasr Tantawy of the World Health Organization Preventive Medicine had announced.

 

The syndicate invited the World Health Organization to the conference and called on the Health Ministry to take serious measures in this regard.

 

Meanwhile, Dr. Sami Taha of the Veterinarians Syndicate warned of new swine flu virus strains and called for tight control of bird and animal farms to avoid human infections from animals of other diseases, including bird flu.

 

In a related development, Beni Suef Governor Magdi al-Batity said 4,000 birds were culled in four places that were spotted with bird flu virus.