Toddler latest swine flu case in Egypt

AFP

CAIRO (AFP) — An 18-month-old boy tested positive for swine flu in Egypt on Thursday, the state news agency MENA reported, as the World Health Organisation told diplomats it was officially declaring a pandemic.

The dual US and Egyptian citizen arrived in Cairo from the United States with his family earlier this week, a health official told MENA.

Diplomats in Geneva said WHO chief Margaret Chan has informed member states that it has decided to declare a swine flu pandemic by raising its alert to the maximum level six.

Chan “confirmed that we would move to phase six,” said an American diplomat at the end of a meeting with ambassadors.

In Cairo the toddler was in stable condition in hospital and his family was being tested for the A(H1N1) virus.

He was the second case reported in Egypt on Thursday after a 34-year-old Colombian in Cairo was found to be infected with the disease a day after her husband, who was recently in the United States, tested positive.

The child was the 12th case after a 12-year-old girl travelling from America became the first reported case in Egypt and on the African continent on June 2.

On Tuesday, the health ministry said it would extend a quarantine on an American University of Cairo residence in the upscale neighbourhood of Zamalek after five American residents were found to have been infected with the virus.

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