Turkey: 30 people died from swine flu since 2014

At least 30 people have died from H1N1 – so-called “swine flu” – in Turkey since 2014, Turkey’s highest Health Ministry official said on Monday.

“We have collected a total of 4,300 samples from patients, out of which 366 were cases of H1N1, known as the swine flu,” Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu told an Ankara meeting about health tourism.

He added that, apart from these 30 deaths, five other people have also died from the influenza B virus and four other people lost their lives from the H3N2 strain since 2014.

The minister said that this flu season has not been as intense as the one seen in 2013-2014 but that the number of fatalities has been increasing in the last 15-20 days.

"Despite this, there is no need for additional measures right now," he claimed.

Public hospitals have been provided with 250,000 antiviral drugs to deal with various strains of the virus, which will be available to patients free of cost, Muezzinoglu said.

The minister said that further details about the swine flu outbreak would be released on Wednesday.

A scientific committee under the Health Ministry in early March had ruled out a swine flu outbreak and predicted that the flu season would be over by the end of this month.