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First swine flu death registered in Crimea

In all, 9 cases of the H1N1 flu have been registered in Crimea

SIMFEROPOL, January 25. /TASS/. The first death from swine flu (H1N1) since the beginning of this year has been registered in Crimea, the republic’s Deputy Health Minister Anton Shaklunov told TASS.

"Today a meeting of the commission of inquiry has been held, and the preliminary results are that the death of a patient in Yevpatoria is directly linked to the H1N1 influenza," he said.

"This is an imported case, he (the patient) contracted the disease not in Crimea but in the Krasnodar region or in the city of Tomsk (in Siberia) he came from. The man was driving his car for nearly three days, swam in the sea and then turned to our doctors for help," Shaklunov said.

According to the regional Ministry of Health, currently the overall number of flu cases in Crimea does not exceed the epidemiological threshold. In all, 9 cases of the H1N1 flu have been registered.

Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said earlier on Monday that Russia’s citizens were in general protected from flu. She pointed to the need for citizens to seek medical assistance on time and warned them against self-treatment, adding that this concerned primarily "pregnant women and social groups with weak immunity."

An epidemic of influenza, including the swine flu A H1N1 virus, is spreading across Russia. Russia’s national consumer watchdog, the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights, said at the moment the week’s epidemiologic threshold is exceeded in 13 Russian regions. The Health Ministry said as of January 21, a total of 27 people have died of flu across the country. Doctors expect the end of epidemic in February.

Swine flu is contagious and spreads in the same way as the seasonal flu. The most serious complication of the flu is pneumonia, leading to fatal cases.