Flu outbreak adds to woes for Afghans

KABUL, Afghanistan — As if the Taliban, car bombs, roadside bombs, leftover Soviet land mines, political unrest and errant NATO air attacks weren't enough, Afghans are facing a new killer: the H1N1 flu pandemic.

The government has declared a state of emergency, and closed schools, universities and even wedding halls and public bathrooms for three weeks to slow the spread of the virus, which has killed 10 people in the capital in less than two weeks. Cases are popping up in provinces spanning the country, with new outbreaks reported in two more provinces over the weekend.

"There is no doubt that we have an epidemic in our country now, and we are moving into the fall season when the conditions make it more likely to spread," said Ahmad Farid Raaid, the spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health.

In the past few days, surgical face masks have bloomed like poppies on the faces of worried pedestrians along crowded streets and markets of the capital as more cases were reported.

Most of the 456 cases among Afghans — and all the fatalities — have occurred in Kabul.

The Afghan government has enough anti-viral medicine to treat about 50,000 flu patients, with 30,000 more doses on the way, Raaid said. But there is no H1N1 vaccine on hand, although the government expects to receive 550,000 doses through the World Health Organization and is asking for 11 million doses.

The initial round of vaccinations will go to a prioritized list, starting with health-care workers, then pregnant women, young children, the national army and police, then students.

Since August, the health ministry has been running a public-awareness campaign aimed at stopping the spread of the disease, Raaid said. Signs in government buildings urge workers not to shake hands, to wash their hands often with soap and to uses masks. Posters bearing similar messages have been placed in public locations around the city.

A common rumor, because of what some regard as the suspicious timing of the emergency declaration, is that the government is exaggerating the danger to discourage gatherings to protest the outcome of the presidential election, which left incumbent Hamid Karzai in place despite massive election fraud in his favor. The runoff that had been scheduled for Saturday was called off after his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out, and Abdullah's supporters remain angry.

Karzai, meanwhile, accidentally added to his flu troubles during a television address Friday night when he referred to the illness by its common name, swine flu, rather than H1N1. The strain is transmitted from person to person, not from animals to people.

The first reported cases in Afghanistan were among U.S. soldiers and other foreigners working on military bases. Muslims are forbidden to eat pork, and so some Afghans have begun saying clearly the flu is passing from pigs to the foreigners then to Afghans. For them, there is one logical solution.

"They say that we should throw out all the foreigners," Raaid said. "As you can imagine, this is a delicate matter for us."