U.S. and British scientists gave good news to the world by announcing they had found the origin of the virus causing the kind of influenza known as swine flu. Researchers at Columbia University in the US said that the original virus had been isolated from pigs in the United States in 1998, while British researchers have declared they have discovered the genetic sequence of the European strain of the virus. These discoveries are a step forward toward producing a vaccine against the disease. In Egypt, medical services in South Sinai and Aswan confined some foreign tourists suspected of having swine flu. One of them was a Spanish woman detained for several hours at Aswan Fever Hospital, while 10 Mexicans underwent tests in Aswan and three British children were kept in Sharm el-Sheikh International Hospital. Meanwhile, the Department of Tanta Fever Hospital said the results of the exams carried out on Ibrahim Abou Mandour and Roshdi Abdel Hadi Suleiman after their return from the US and Israel were negative. The Ministry of Health declared that 86,717 people from the Gulf were quarantined nationwide from April 26 to yesterday.
Giza Governorate carried out yesterday the first campaign of its kind to cull pigs. 2,200 female pigs – pregnant and young - were buried alive in the Shubrament grave under the supervision of the health, veterinary, supply and agriculture departments as well as a force from Giza Security Directorate.
Across the world, the number of confirmed infections has raised to 3,440 in 29 countries, according to the latest report of the World Health Organization. For the first time since the announcement of the disease, the United States has become the most affected country, as the number of confirmed cases there reached 1,639, while in Mexico they are 1,364.
