H1N1 outbreak kills 33 in Iran over recent weeks

At least 33 people were killed in an outbreak of H1N1 in Iran over the past three weeks, an Iranian health official said here on Monday.

The flu claimed 28 lives in Iran's central Kerman province and five, including four pregnant women, in the country's southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran's deputy Health Minister Ali Akbar Sayyari was quoted by Press TV as saying.

"The Health Ministry predicts that the disease will spread across the country in the coming days," Sayyari said.

Influenza A (H1N1) virus is the subtype of influenza A virus. In June 2009, the World Health Organization declared the new strain of swine-origin H1N1 as a pandemic.

This strain is often called swine flu by the public media. This novel virus spread worldwide and had caused about 17,000 deaths since the start of 2010.