CAIRO: The Ministry of Health announced three new cases of swine flu Wednesday, pushing the total number of reported cases up to 29. The most alarming case among those three is of an unidentified 21-year-old hotel staffer, according to Health Ministry Spokesperson Abdel Rahman Shahin. This man has not traveled recently and has not come in contact with any of the previously reported cases. One of the other two cases is a 15-year-old Columbian woman, who is the daughter of the 45-year-old Columbian women who arrived to Cairo from Frankfurt on June 10 on Lufthansa and was diagnosed with swine flu. The third case is an Egyptian-Canadian five-year-old who came from Canada on June 16. She was hospitalized soon after arriving to Cairo International Airport. According to Shahin, the three new cases are in stable condition and are receiving treatment, adding that 12 of the previously confirmed cases have already recovered and were released from the hospital. As of Wednesday, according to the World Health Organization, 76 countries have officially reported 35, 928 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 163 deaths. The Ministry of Health did not decree any stringent regulations to contain the virus, only advising citizens to open windows in public transport and avoid crowded areas. Last Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the alert level to the maximum stage six, signaling a global pandemic. However, the organization did not stipulate travel restrictions or border closures.
