More swine flu cases in Saudi Arabia, UAE

Six more cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Saudi Arabia, bringing the total number of reported cases to 45, the Ministry of Health has said.

Five of the six new cases are people who contracted the virus from patients in various hospitals in Riyadh, while the sixth case is a 25-year-old Saudi man who arrived from New Delhi on Tuesday.

Khaled Al-Mirghalani, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, said that the Saudi man, who arrived at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport aboard Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight SV763, was diagnosed with swine flu by quarantine officials at the arrival lounge, Arab News reported on Wednesday.

“This is the first time we have found a case in a passenger coming from India,” he told the paper, adding that the volume of passenger traffic between the kingdom and India was huge.

“We are now monitoring all arriving passengers from all corners of the world,” the spokesman said.

He requested passengers who travelled aboard SV763 yesterday to monitor their health condition and any visible symptoms should be brought to the immediate notice of health officials.

The new cases in Riyadh include two Filipino nurses aged 51 and 52, a 21-year-old Saudi man, and two Saudi girls aged six months and one year.

Meanwhile, the UAE Ministry of Health has confirmed the sixth and seventh cases of swine flu.

One was a UAE national female arriving from abroad with her family and the other was a child who was also returning from a trip abroad.

"The condition of the infected woman and child, who are now receiving necessary treatment, is stable," a ministry spokesman told news agency WAM.

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