CAIRO: A 23-year-old woman from Giza died after being infected with H1N1 on Monday, Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady said, bringing the total of swine flu deaths in Egypt to six.
The patient was admitted to a private hospital on Oct. 28 and was diagnosed with regular influenza and treated accordingly.
Her condition severely deteriorated as she suffered pneumonia and passed away Monday.
The country’s fifth death from swine flu, a nine-year-old boy who passed away early Saturday morning, raised speculation around Abbassiya Fever Hospital and if it’s properly equipped and if its staff are well-trained.
State-run Al-Ahram daily criticized health ministry officials for claiming that public hospitals are fully equipped to treat swine flu patients, after it was reported that the nine-year-old was transferred from hospital to hospital without receiving proper treatment.
According to Al-Ahram, the emergency room at the Abbassiya Fever Hospital had only one young doctor on call when the patient was admitted. “The young doctor whose age does not exceed 25 and with little experience, decided to take him into the intensive care unit and a later told them that the boy is suffering from internal hemorrhage, but he doesn’t know where because there is no CT scanner at the hospital, reported Al-Ahram.
The parents were told to provide six blood bags and 12 bags of plasma and were given a sample of the boy’s blood because they could not run a blood test at the hospital.
It was only when he was taken to Dar El-Hekma Private Hospital that he was diagnosed with swine flu and was transferred to El-Youm El-Wahed Hospital, a public hospital equipped for swine flu cases. He passed away on his way there.
A committee of doctors is currently investigating the cause of death, However Amr Kandil, deputy minister of health for preventative medicine, attributed the death to a Voltaren shot the boy was administered at a private clinic before being transferred to the Abbassiya Fever Hospital.
On a related note, the second shipment of the swine flu vaccine – 70,000 doses – arrived yesterday in Egypt. Hajj pilgrims heading to Mecca will start receiving the vaccine today.
To refute rumors that the H1N1 vaccine has harmful side effects, Health Minister Hatem El-Gabali took the vaccine shot live on Egyptian terrestrial TV.
