Swine flu death toll reaches 17 in Georgia

Seventeen people have died because of the swine flu (H1N1) in Georgia this winter, the Georgian National Disease Control Centre says.

The most recent fatality took place yesterday, when a 48-year-old man died in Gorii, eastern Georgia.

Health officials stated that the man also had Hepatitis C. 

The Health Ministry also confirmed that a nine-month-old infant, who died last week, was also infected with the virus.

The infant was ill with measles at the time, together with the flu.

Agenda.ge team has converted influenza data of the past 10 years, published by the National Disease Control Centre into the infographics below. Click on the image to take a bigger view. 

The Georgian Health Ministry says that the number of flu cases has decreased these days and repeated that there is no risk of epidemic as for now the rate of infection is 253 cases per 100,000 residents.

Studies at Georgian public schools and kindergartens have been postponed until 21 January due to the spread of the flu.

The Georgian government has made anti-flu medication Tamiflu free of charge for Georgian citizens if it is prescribed by a doctor and decided to cover the expenses of emergency medical treatment for all patients with flu.

13,000 packages of Tamiflu were imported to Georgia on 12 January. The Health Ministry says that the country will also purchase anti-flu vaccines as there is a lack of vaccines in the country given that more people than expected decided to have them selves vaccinated.