Saudi Arabia has confirmed four new cases of swine flu, bringing the total number in the kingdom to 39.
The Ministry of Health said a Saudi man, aged 25, and a Saudi woman, 24, contracted the virus from a patient they were visiting regularly.
The other two cases are a Saudi woman of unreported age and her two-month-old infant who returned to Riyadh from Bangkok aboard an Etihad Airways flight on June 16, Arab News reported on Tuesday.
The first reported case of swine flu in the kingdom was a Filipino nurse who returned to Riyadh late last month after vacationing in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry is urging anyone who was aboard Etihad Airways Flight 317 to Riyadh on June 16 and showing flu-like symptoms to contact the ministry to be checked and treated (if necessary) at no cost.
“Expatriates and locals who have visited swine flu patients in hospitals should contact the numbers since the visitors and their children are vulnerable to the disease,” Khaled Al-Mirghalani, the ministry’s spokesman, told the paper.
He said 17 of the 35 previous cases have now fully recovered and others would be released from hospital by end of the week.
Meanwhile, health officials in Bahrain have declared the island free of H1N1 virus after the last confirmed swine flu patient was released from Ebrahim Khalil Kanoo Health Centre where they were kept in isolation for a week.
Bahrain has so far registered 15 swine flu cases.
Follow us on
