Eighth UAE swine flu case confirmed

The Ministry of Health has announced the UAE's eighth case of swine flu. The victim, who arrived in the country from abroad, is now receiving medical treatment in one of the hospitals in the country, the Ministry of Health told the state news agency WAM. The sixth and seventh cases were an Emirati woman arriving from abroad with her family, and a Chinese child also arriving from overseas. Both are receiving hospital treatment. The fifth case of swine flu was confirmed in the UAE on 19 June. The infected woman was identified only as a UAE resident. Two UAE nationals tested positive for the H1N1 virus last Thursday after returning to the country from abroad. Another UAE national who had flown in from the US was confirmed on Monday to have been infected. Last month the UAE's first swine flu patient was discharged from Tawam Hospital in Al Ain and is said to have fully recovered. The man, an academic at UAE University in Al Ain, had flown from Canada. The Minister of Heath, Dr Hanif Hassan Ali, has said enough antiviral drugs for the population of the UAE have been ordered and would be delivered by September. Elsewhere in the region, Five women basketball players and their male coach were confirmed today as the first swine flu cases in Iraq. The six returned to Iraqi Kurdistan from Chicago a week ago and have since been kept in hospital for tests to determine their condition, according to the regional health minister. The number of swine flu cases in the Philippines, where one person has already died of the virus, jumped by 123 in the past two days, a government official said today. *Agencies