TEHRAN -- Swine flu has claimed the lives of 14 students in Iran over the past weeks, brining the country’s total death rate from the disease to 100, an MP said here on Wednesday.

A total of 14 school students and three university students have lost their lives due to the disease since it emerged in the Islamic Republic, MP Ali Karimi Piruzjaei noted, speaking on the concerted efforts made by the ministries of health and education to prevent the spread of the disease across the schools and universities.
According to the Health Ministry’s report, 42 flu patients have died over the past week, bringing the death toll from the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, to 100 across the country.
466 new cases of the disease have been reported over the past seven days, bringing the country’s total number of H1N1 patients to 3,128.
Iran's first swine flu case was a 16-year-old Iranian-American boy, who tested positive for the disease on June 22, upon his arrival in Tehran.
The H1N1 virus has now become the dominant influenza virus around the globe, with high levels and an increase of activity in many regions, since the disease burst onto the scene in Mexico in April, the World Health Organization said recently.
Compared with the countries in the east Mediterranean region, Iran’s death toll in regard to its total population of over 70 million is not high.
Like seasonal flu, H1N1 is more active in the winter than in the summer, and a majority of infected people get better on their own. H1N1 also is as transmissible and infectious as seasonal flu, but the general public is urged not to treat the virus like just another type of flu.
Swine flu is a respiratory disease that normally infects pigs. It is caused by the Influenza Type A H1N1 virus, which is the same type of virus that caused the infamous Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918