Three people have tested positive for swine flu in Egypt, bringing the number of reported infections to twenty six, of whom twelve recovered, the Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday. In a press statement yesterday, Abdel Rahman Shahin, spokesman for the ministry, said the new cases were a 22-year-old Canadian-Sudanese woman, a 24-year-old Sudanese woman and an 8-year-old American girl. The Canadian-Sudanese woman, case No. 20, arrived at Cairo International Airport from Canada on June 11 while the Sudanese woman caught the disease from physical contact with cases No. 20 and 24. The American girl arrived at Cairo Airport from the United States on June 13. A day after her arrival, she suffered from fever, cough and sore throat. The three cases have been hospitalized and treated with Tamiflu. Their health conditions are stable, Shahin said. In a related development, Assistant Minister of Health for Pharmacy Affairs Kamal Sabra denied that Tamiflu drug, which is sold by pharmacies nowadays, has been smuggled from the Ministry of Health or any of the companies affiliated to the Holding Company for Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals & Medical Appliances, which produces or imports the drug. The ministries of health and the interior formed a committee to inspect pharmacies. On the other hand, Jordan, Qatar and Yemen have identified their first cases of the H1N1 flu virus. H1N1, a mixture of swine, bird and human viruses, has killed 163 people and infected 35,928, according to the World Health Organization's latest tallies on Monday.
