Iran’s health minister: Swine flu kills 42 across country

Iran’s health minister says an outbreak of swine flu has killed at least 42 people in the country over the past month.

Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi says 33 of the deaths from the H1N1 virus occurred in southeastern Kerman province. He says 600 people who contracted the virus there have been hospitalized, but that the outbreak is now under control.

He says other fatalities occurred in southeastern and southwestern Iran and one person died in Karaj, 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of the capital, Tehran.

Last year, swine flu claimed at least 89 lives in Iran.

The 2009 H1N1 outbreak started a global pandemic that killed as many as half a million people. The strain has been lethal mostly to those with complicating circumstances and is now considered a seasonal flu.