# 3974
Six days ago Afghanistan declared the pandemic to be an emergency (see Afghanistan Declares H1N1 Emergency), warning that 1 infected person in 80 die from the pandemic virus. As many as 70,000 deaths.
While those estimates may turn out to be high, there is no doubt that developing nations have graver concerns with this pandemic virus than do countries with access to antivirals, antibiotics, and hospital care.
The challenges facing developing nations in this pandemic are many and very serious (see A Tale of Two Pandemics). In order to stem the spread of the virus, Afghanistan has now decided to close schools for most of the month of November.
This report from the VOA.
Afghanistan Closes Schools Due to Increasing H1N1 Cases
By Sean Maroney
Kabul
08 November 2009The Afghan government has closed the country's schools and universities for most of November in response to an increased number of H1N1 flu cases. Since July, officials have diagnosed nearly 350 people with the virus. There have been a total of 772 confirmed cases, and 10 people have died.
Afghan officials say most of the flu cases have been in Kabul, Parwan and the provinces of Herot, Kandahar, Ningrahar and Bamayan.
Afghanistan's Health Minister Dr. Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi says only Afghans so far have died from the virus.
He says the basic reason for the deaths has been because the victims went to treatment centers too late. He says most of the foreigners with the virus have been with the NATO forces, and they were able to start their treatments early, which helped their chances for survival.
The United Nations World Health Organization representative for Afghanistan, Peter Graass, says that despite the last eight years of medical improvements in the country, there is still a lot more work left to do.
"Somewhere between 60 and 70 percent of all Afghans have access within two hours of walking or traveling to basic health services, so that means that under the best of circumstances we have a very sizable - still very sizable - proportion of the population that is basically missing out," he said.
He says the Afghan health services are reasonably prepared to deal with the H1N1 outbreak. But he adds that officials believe the actual number of cases is much higher and are preparing for scenarios in which a fourth of the country contracts the flu virus.
