CAIRO: The Ministry of Health reported on Sunday six new cases of H1N1, raising the total number of cases to 78 in Egypt.
Official health ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahin said that the new cases include a six-year-old Egyptian girl, a 17-year-old Somali boy and a 56-year-old British man who all recently arrived to Cairo from England.
The other three are a 21-year-old Chilean male student, a 22-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man who all arrived on the same flight from Chile.
The patients arrived to Cairo last Friday, exhibiting flu-like symptoms and were detected at the airport.
They are currently being treated in Egyptian hospitals, Shahin said.
He added that the total number of recovered cases is 61, while the remaining 17 cases are stable and are receiving all the necessary medical treatment.
In the wake of news reports indicating that two H1N1 patients did not respond to Tamiflu, the medication used to treat the virus, Nasr Al-Sayed, deputy minister of health for precautionary measures, assured that that does not mean that Tamiflu is unable to treat H1N1.
“The drug has shown tremendous success in treating the disease worldwide, Al-Sayed said, adding that the countries with reported cases had announced that it was “normal for some cases not to respond to a certain drug because the same happens with other diseases.
In a press statement, the Ministry of Health announced that the vaccine used for regular seasonal flu does not prevent the H1N1 flu.
The ministry said it is unnecessary for people to wear surgical masks, because most of the discovered cases came to Egypt from abroad and “internally, Egypt is still safe.
On Sunday, Syria reported its first case of H1N1. The West Bank also reported two new cases.
