JERUSALEM, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- An estimated 700 to 1,000 Israelis may die from the H1N1 virus this winter, a senior Israeli Health Ministry official said.
Addressing the Knesset's Labor, Health and Welfare Committee Monday, the ministry's director general, Professor Avi Yisraeli, said the majority of fatalities will be young people and pregnant women. He noted Israeli hospitals lacked 4,500 beds to cope with the expected outbreak.
Statistics released by the World Health Organization have warned people in the 15-49 age bracket and pregnant women are the most susceptible to the swine flu virus and should be the first to receive a vaccine once it is released on the market, the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported Tuesday.
Professor Dan Engelhard, head of pediatrics at Jerusalem's Hadassah University Hospital, told Haaretz the mortality rate for swine flu is expected to be similar to that for seasonal flu, but fatalities will be among young people and pregnant women rather than the elderly.
Yisraeli estimated in the event of an epidemic 25 percent to 45 percent of the nation's work force could be affected, the Tel Aviv newspaper Maariv reported.
In preparation for the winter months, Yisraeli said the ministry intends to gradually minimize the amount of medical treatments for non-emergency cases, and women giving birth will be released from hospitals after a one-day stay, Maariv said.
Israel's Education Ministry is distributing instructions to the country's schools on procedures to be implemented in the event of an outbreak of H1N1 virus, Maariv said. Ministry officials said the government will shut down classrooms or entire schools if deemed necessary.
Two Israelis have died from the swine flu or complications related to it, the ministry said
