Israel records 19th swine flu fatality - 87-year-old woman

Israel recorded its 19th swine flu fatality Monday when an 87-year-old woman died of the H1N1 virus at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Israel's swine flu fatality rates have run high when compared to European and other Middle Eastern countries. According to information from the New England Journal of Medicine, no fatalities have yet been reported in most European countries.

Prof. Dan Engelhard , head of the medical team advising the Health Ministry on epidemics and chief of the pediatric department at Hadassah Ein Karem University Hospital in Jerusalem, said Israel's high rate was probably a result of the method of counting deaths from the H1N1 virus.

"It's probably most affected by the way in which every state determines swine flu deaths," he said. "In Israel we took up a very general approach, including seriously ill patients who died with swine flu but not necessarily of swine flu."

This has been noted in several swine flu deaths in the past weeks, including a 4-year-old girl from the Bedouin village Umm al-Ganam, who died from swine flu while suffering from a bone disease that compromised her immune system.

Last Wednesday, the Health Ministry ordered all hospitals and clinics to increase their staff as of November 1 to cope with the expected spread of swine flu this winter.