Threat of Swine Flu Outbreak Rising
Added On : 19th June 2009
RIYADH: Three adults and four children have tested positive for swine flu, bringing the total H1N1 tally in the Kingdom to 29, the Health Ministry said yesterday.
There have been no reported deaths in Saudi Arabia linked to swine flu. All of the new cases are persons who were in close contact with people already determined to have swine flu.
A 32-year-old Saudi man and a 29-year-old Lebanese woman were admitted to Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital following their close association with H1N1 patients already in the hospital.
Two girls (ages 8 and 9) and a 14-year-old boy are being treated in Madinah after testing positive for H1N1. They were closely associated with a Saudi student who came from Australia carrying the swine flu virus this week. Medical authorities did not reveal the nature of the association.
A Filipino nurse at Riyadhs King Fahd National Guard Hospital who had come from Manila via Bahrain on June 13 also tested positive for the virus. The seventh case announced yesterday was a boy, 8, who had flown with his family from Brunei to Jeddah.
Meanwhile, prominent scholar in remarks published yesterday voiced his opposition to any travel bans for the annual Haj because of the scare over the swine flu pandemic. Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Obaikan, a member of the Shoura Council, was quoted by a local daily as saying that Islam does not condone travel bans.
It is not proper to ban people from Haj, said Al-Obaikan. He also said travel to and from countries with reported cases of swine flu should not be impaired.
The sheer volume of people participating in Haj makes it a possibility that swine flu cases will be transmitted on a wide scale. But Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the Kingdoms grand mufti, has said the concerns over exposure to swine flu at the pilgrimage were exaggerated.
The authorities however are gearing up for a possible outbreak among pilgrims after the first case in Makkah, a Malaysian boy, was detected on Wednesday.
The case underscored the threat of an outbreak of the disease among the more than two million people expected to arrive in the country from around the world during the August-December pilgrimage season, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Al-Mirghalani said.
Mohammed Rasooldeen - Arab News
