CAIRO: A 36-year-old woman from Ismailia died from swine flu Thursday, to be Egypt's fourth H1N1 fatality, the Ministry of Health announced. According to a ministry statement, the victim exhibited strong flu-like symptoms and was hospitalized on Oct. 27. She was also suffering from high blood pressure and obesity, the ministry added. This is the fourth H1N1 death since the disease first appeared in Egypt last June. The first death was a 25-year-old woman with a heart condition. She died in July after arriving from Saudi Arabia, where she was performing the Umrah, lesser pilgrimage. The second was in September, as a 25-year-old woman caught the virus from her husband who had arrived from Saudi Arabia. She had no other health problems and after investigations, the ministry blamed the death on the physicians who had initially examined her. On Oct. 9, Egypt reported the death of a 23-year-old woman from Giza, the third H1N1 fatality in the country. Egypt has reported 1,228 H1N1 cases so far, with 17 cases announced Thursday night. According to Ministry of Health spokesperson Abdel-Rahman Shahin, 1,187 have recovered while 38 are still receiving treatment in hospitals. Out of the 17 new cases, 10 are school students: four students from Ramses College aged 13, eight, 15 and 17; a nine-year-old from Hosni Al-Aqad School, and a seven-year-old from Al-Iman private school (Cairo); a student in Narmer private school, and a 12-year-old from Al-Horriah Language School (Giza); an 11-year-old from Modern School (Helwan); and 12-year-old from Al-Adresy Preparatory School (Alexandria). They bring the total of students infected with the virus in Egyptian schools to 79. One of the cases was of a university student, a 16-year-old attending Al-Ahram Canadian University in Sixth of October. The remaining new cases include four living in Egypt, one arriving from Kuwait and one from Saudi Arabia.
