DAMASCUS, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Health Ministry on Thursday started to inject all of Syrians pilgrims with 20,000 A/H1N1 flu vaccine doses offered by Saudi Arabia in the occasion of the pilgrimage to holy sites at the kingdom next week, SANA news agency reported.

    Those doses reached Damascus on Wednesday night, and will be available freely to all pilgrims until November 19, SANA said.

    According to the health ministry, the A/H1N1 has killed 13 persons in Syria and more than 120 people affected with the first case detected in a Syrian woman who flew to the country from Australia in early July.

    The Ministry has claimed that Syria needs about 6 million flu vaccine doses, affirming that small quantity of vaccine might arrive in Syria next month.

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