Egypt News

Egypt's Health Minister Hatem el Gabali

The Egyptian Health Ministry reported on Saturday that the death of a nine-year-old Egyptian pupil at a language school in the Governorate of Helwan, south of Cairo, of swine flu, bringing to five the number of cases killed by the virus

"The schoolchild, who studied at Al- Masria Language School in Helwan, was admitted to a private clinic on Thursday.

Five Egyptians have died of the A/H1N1 virus since its outbreak in the most populousArab country earlier in May. Meanwhile, Egypt today is due to take delivery of the first batch of swine flu vac- cines, according to health officials.

The vaccines will be allocated for the use of the Muslim pilgrims preparing to leave for Saudi Arabia, they said."The A/H1N1 vaccinations would be available from today, and pilgrims must be vaccinated according to instructions and conditions of the Saudi Health Ministry," a senior official at the Egyptian Health Ministry said.

Saudi Arabia says it is prepared to wel- come some three million people during the annual hajj to Mecca late this month, and has asked pilgrims to be vaccinated against ordinary flu and H1N1 beforehand.

Egypt, which sends tens of thousands of pilgrims to Mecca, announced in August it would buy five million doses of vaccine, a figure likely to double or even triple in the winter season.

The country of 80 million people has reported four swine flu death cases.The situation of the swine flu virus in Egypt till now is 'safe and not dangerous', according to a senior official at the World Health Organisation (WHO).

"The situation of the swine flu in Egypt till now is safe and not dangerous unless the virus is not mutated," said Dr. Hussein el-Gezairy, the Regional Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO), on Friday.

El-Gezairy pointed out that Egypt is well-prepared to control and combat the recent outbreak of the swine flu given its experience in dealing with the deadly H5N1 virus.

"People who did the hajj pilgrimage before, should delay it this year," el- Gezairy advised pilgrims. Authorities in Egypt have taken strict measures to contain the spread of swine flu including slaughtering 230,000 pigs in a step that drew heavy criticism and delaying school and university entrance dates by a few weeks.

The Egyptian Health Ministry said on Friday that swine flu cases amounted to 1254 after 25 new cases tested positive for the virus."Thirteen new cases were confirmed infected with A/H1N1," spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen said.

"Tamiflu is not used unless the person is infected with the A/H1N1 virus known as the swine flu virus," a statement issued from the Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) stressed again yesterday.

EGYPT NEWS

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