CAIRO: Late Thursday a 60-year-old Egyptian female pilgrim died after being infected with the H1N1 virus.
The Saudi Arabian health ministry made the announcement in an official statement, noting that this is the first death in this Ramadan’s Umrah season.
The deceased was reportedly suffering from severe health complications. Her condition has already deteriorated by the time she went to hospital, according to the Saudi statement.
She had traveled to Saudi Arabia by sea last week to perform an Umrah.
The Egyptian Ministry of Health had confirmed the news and added that Saudi Arabia has done its best to help the patient.
In the same statement, the Egyptian ministry added that it will continue to monitor all airports and harbors to make sure that pilgrims have fulfilled all the needed health obligations required before their departure.
Last month, the Ministry decreed that pilgrims younger than 25 and older than 65 will not be allowed to travel on Umrah; neither will anyone with serious health problems.
The ministry further made it obligatory for all travelers to issue medical reports that prove their health status before traveling.
A source at the Egyptian Ministry of Health said that the ministry did not have any more information about the latest death.
In a related note, the Egyptian Ministry of Health announced four new cases of H1N1 flu, raising Egypt’s total number of cases to 891.
Nasr Al-Sayed, deputy minister of health for precautionary measures, said on Thursday that three of the four new cases are Egyptians; two had recently arrived from Saudi Arabia, and one was related to a previous case, while the fourth is an Australian who recently arrived to Egypt from Greece.
Al-Sayed added that the number of recovered cases is 791.
In related news, an Egyptian MP Hayam Amer, said that she will file a lawsuit against the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Watan for publishing false news that she was infected with swine flu.
In an interview with Al-Gomhuria state-run daily, Amer said that she was surprised to find some of her relatives in Kuwait calling her to check on her health and they were the ones who told her about the news.
On Sept. 10, Al-Watan ran a story about the MP’s infection on its front page, adding that the infection was an obstacle to holding PA sessions. The PA, however, has been officially on recess since June.
The newspaper then ran a retraction on page three of its Sept. 13 edition only after Amer called and denied the news.
Unhappy with the retraction, Amer has already asked two Kuwaiti lawyers to handle the lawsuit she plans to file against Al-Watan.
