CAIRO: The Egyptian Ministry of Health reported three new cases of swine flu in Egypt, bringing the total to 15.
“Three cases of swine flu were detected at Cairo Airport on Friday morning. One coming from the US, one from Canada and one from Sweden all tested positive for the H1N1 virus at the health quarantine in the airport, said Abdel Rahman Shahin, official spokesperson of the Ministry of Health.
Two are Egyptian and the third is of Syrian descent.
“They were transferred to the Abbasiya Fever Hospital (Homiyat) where they are receiving treatment, meanwhile the passengers who were on their flights are currently being tested for H1N1 virus, added Shahin.
This comes one day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared its first influenza pandemic in 40 years after an emergency meeting of scientific experts Thursday on a swine flu outbreak which has hit 74 countries.
WHO Director General Margaret Chan said the declaration of a “moderate pandemic should not spark panic and did not mean the death toll from A(H1N1), which currently stands at 145, would rise sharply.
The UN body said it was not recommending the closure of borders nor restrictions in the movement of people, goods and services. But it warned the virus was spreading beyond the Americas where it was first detected in April.
“We will be raising our pandemic alert level to level six; and this means that the world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic in the 21st century, Chan told reporters.
WHO Assistant Director General Keiji Fukuda warned the pandemic could last up to two years. “For a period of one to two years the virus is going around the world, and is getting people infected in a way a pandemic virus will get people infected … We need to be flexible how we respond to it, said Fukudaa.
Egyptian Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabaly announced that there is no intention to close international borders or prohibit travel after the WHO declared the influenza pandemic. He added that there won’t be any restrictions on trade or any means of transport.
“The WHO is not recommending travel restrictions nor does WHO have evidence of risk from eating cooked pork, it stated on its official website.
Official Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady said that Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has ordered stepping up the procedures to detect swine flu coming from abroad and that they have no intention of shutting down means of transportation or schools, adding that the final exams schedule for schools will not change.
The Ministry of Health advises citizens not to panic and go on with their daily lives as usual and to take all cautionary measures, it said in a press statement.
The ministry also said that Egyptian authorities have a stock of tamiflu, the drug used to treat the H1N1 virus.
Some of the first cases of swine flu in Egypt were detected last Monday in American students staying at the American University in Cairo’s (AUC) Zamalek dormitory.
Five of the seven students diagnosed with the flu have recovered and were released from the hospital, AUC said in a statement on Friday.
“The Egyptian Ministry of Health last night has confirmed that all tests taken from the AUC community for the H1N1 flu are negative, said Brian MacDougall, vice president for planning and administration at AUC.
The university is now in the process of taking all the necessary steps to ensure the full sanitization of all classrooms, meeting spaces and laboratory facilities on both campuses. Administrative offices will be open on Sunday, June 14 to prepare for the start of summer classes on Monday, June 15.
According to WHO, 74 countries officially reported 29,669 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 145 deaths.
In the Arab World, Saudi Arabia said on Friday that three family members of a small boy who tested positive for swine flu have also caught the virus, bringing to six the number of reported swine flu cases in the kingdom.
The father and two sisters of the three-and-a-half-year-old Saudi boy were diagnosed with A(H1N1) influenza after undergoing tests on Thursday and Friday, the health ministry said in a statement carried by official SPA news agency.
The family has arrived in Saudi Arabia from the United States last Sunday, according to Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabia. The boy tested positive on Thursday.
Authorities in Morocco have detected a first case of the swine flu virus in a young woman recently returned from Canada, the health ministry said Friday.
The 18-year-old woman, who had been studying in Montreal, flew back to Casablanca on Wednesday and then on to the central city of Fes on an internal Royal Air Maroc flight, a statement from the ministry said.
It is the second country in Africa to report a case of the virus, after Egypt. The woman’s father contacted a local doctor on Thursday after she showed flu-like symptoms and tests later confirmed she had contracted A(H1N1) influenza. -Additional reporting by AFP
