CAIRO: Fifteen new H1N1 cases have been diagnosed in Egypt, raising the country’s total to 200, Egypt’s Ministry of Health announced Sunday.
According to the ministry’s official statement, 10 of the 15 new confirmed cases are Egyptians who recently arrived from Saudi Arabia, England, China, France and the United States.
One of the recently discovered cases is related to another previously detected in Egypt.
The remaining five new cases include three Syrians who recently arrived to Egypt from Saudi Arabia, an Algerian and a British man who arrived to Egypt from England.
The ministry said 142 cases have already recovered, and 57 are undergoing treatment.
Last week, the Ministry of Health announced the first H1N1 death; a 25-year-old woman who recently returned to Egypt from Saudi Arabia where she was on Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca.
However, Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabaly maintained that her death was mainly due to her heart condition.
Last Saturday, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health also announced the country’s first H1N1 death.
The deceased is 30-year-old Khaled Al-Marghlany who, according to the ministry’s official statement, also suffered from obesity.
He was admitted to hospital Wednesday complaining from high temperature and pneumonia and was diagnosed with H1N1. He had come in contact with another H1N1 patient.
He was immediately given Tamiflu, the antiviral used to treat H1N1, but his condition deteriorated.
Saudi Arabia was the first Arab country to report a H1N1 case in the region since the eruption of the virus last April. The ministry said it will stop reporting the cases if the total reaches 300.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had also announced that it will stop updating the number of infected cases, and asked that only countries that report their first H1N1 infection are expected to inform the organization.
According to the WHO, the virus has claimed the lives of 800 people worldwide.
