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Itongadol.- One woman has died of swine flu and another seven woman have been hospitalized with the disease, four of them on artificial respiration.
The dead woman, in her 50s, who was not immediately named, was diagnosed with swine flu a month ago, according to Maariv. She was hospitalized at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva along with one other woman infected by the virus.
Four women are hospitalized at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba with the disease, three of them pregnant. The four women had come to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba complaining of flu symptoms. Tests showed they were infected with H1N1 — popularly known as swine flu.
The baby of one had to be delivered by emergency Caesarian section on Wednesday, Channel 2 reported Thursday.
Another two women have been admitted to a hospital in Jerusalem, according to reports.
The Health Ministry has called on the public to get vaccinated against the potentially deadly infection, according to the Haaretz daily.
The 25-year-old woman who had to give birth by C-section in her seventh month is on artificial respiration in the emergency section of Soroka’s Internal Medicine Department, while the baby — in stable condition — has been transferred to the premature births emergency unit.
A 57-year-old woman whose health is defined as high-risk is also on a respirator in the hospital’s internal medicine emergency section unit.
The hospital emphasized that none of the victims had been vaccinated against the flu and that the cases have been reported to the Health Ministry. The condition of two of the infected women is improving and they are being kept in isolation.
The H1N1 virus became a global pandemic in 2009, and has killed thousands around the world since, including at least five in Israel.