TEHRAN – Deputy Health Minister Ali Akbar Sayyari announced on Monday that so far 33 people have died of influenza virus in Kerman and Sistan-Balouchestan provinces.

MP Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi told ISNA news agency on Monday that illegal foreign nationals are to blame for the influenza outbreak among some citizens in Kerman province.
Zahedi, who represents the people of Kerman in Majlis, asked the Interior Ministry to do its utmost effort to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country.
Iran’s eastern borders are the main destination of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan.
Zahedi said the influenza has so far led to the death of 22 citizens in the province.
Kerman province governor Alireza Razm Hosseini, while declaring an “orange situation”, has said the schools in the province will be closed on December 8 and 9.
Kerman Medical Sciences University Chancellor Ali Akbar Haghdoust has said the influenza is of H1N1 type. However, he put the number of people died of the virus in the province at 28.

Hossein Ali Shariyari, the representative of Zahedan in the Majlis, has also stated that eight people have died of H1N1 virus in Sistan Balouchestan province. Shariyari, a physician sitting on the Majlis Health Committee, said the cause of the disease is not clear yet.
Zahedi, a former science minister during the Ahmadinejad administration, said medical sciences universities in Kerman and Rafsanjan have done their best to curb the outbreak but their facilities were not enough to control the disease.
“We want the health minister to focus the ministry’s efforts there (Kerman) to prevent the further spread of the disease.”
He noted the Interior Ministry have held a meeting to discuss the problem and entered talks with the United Nations to stop the entry of illegal immigrants to the country.