JEDDAH: A text is circulating in the Gulf region alleging to be the chapter and verse of a case of swine flu at a McDonald’s restaurant. The message seems to identify the name of the food chain and the staff member. The message reads verbatim: “Dear All, Please don’t eat anything out of home, today they discovered a swine flu case in MACDONALD’s ‘Tarek El Nasr’ (one of the staff), the government closed the branch, please advice every one you know. Some guy works nearby Mac and he confirmed it’s true...”

At the risk of ruining a good story with facts, at least the message writer got the name of a fast food chain almost correct. The allegedly afflicted member of staff featuring in the message is currently under a bus: Tarek El Nasr is a street in the El Maadi district of Cairo.

Abdulrahman Alireza, general manager and developmental licensee for the McDonald’s brand in Saudi Arabia, told Arab New that the rumor of a swine flu case at a McDonald’s in Cairo began as a hoax message that circulated on blogs and through SMS around June 12 after Egyptian authorities warned the public to avoid El Nasr Street in Cairo as a precaution against crowding an area dense with eateries.

“The Civil Defense there closed the whole street as a precautionary measure. That street has many retail stores, food outlets and a McDonald’s in it,” he said. “The closure of the street lasted about an hour and then returned to business... In every iteration of the message I think they tweaked it a little bit. Gradually the street became a person and then a member of McDonald’s staff.”

No swine flu cases of restaurant workers have been reported anywhere in the Middle East, yet much like the H1N1 virus itself the message spread and mutated across borders and reached every country in the Gulf this week. Al Arabiya TV, Gulf News and a slew of Gulf newspapers have likewise reported that the information is false. “This is mischievous and nasty canard that is being spread,” Primary Care and Public Health Assistant Undersecretary Dr. Mariam Al-Jalahma told Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News on Tuesday.

“The heart of the matter is Tarek El Nasr,” said Alireza. “McDonald’s does not have anyone of that name.”

Alireza stressed that the commendable proactive efforts by the Saudi government to be transparent about H1N1 in the Kingdom has helped to undermine rumors spread by the mischievous or gullible. “All you get out of this as an end result is to put fear and panic into the community which is precisely what the government does not want to happen,” he said.

Alireza dismissed speculation that the rumor might be the work of a competitor. “If one member of staff in a restaurant did ever get infected, it would actually not affect the business very much,” he said, “though it would be treated very seriously.” He added that the WHO had said that H1N1 virus cannot be spread through food. It is a fact that the virus can be killed off by heating food to 56 degrees Celsius and above. Flu viruses spread mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing by people with influenza. It is possible to become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching your mouth or nose.

Alireza was at pains to point out the strict food safety regimes that are a central part of McDonald’s.

“McDonald’s feeds on average 56 million people a day across the world; we simply cannot afford to take any risks with health or wholesomeness at all,” he said.

He noted that each employee is required by local law to have a health card. They follow stringent food safety procedures and that all the fast food outlets are frequently checked by officials from Jeddah municipality.

The official statement from the company in the Kingdom reads in part: “McDonald’s Saudi Arabia strongly denies the rumors being circulated among mobile and Internet users, falsely claiming the detection of an H1N1 virus case among its employees and the closure of one of its restaurants. These rumors are not true whatsoever.”

“There is no way that anything like a swine flu case happening without the authorities being aware very quickly,” he said. “The best advice I can offer is do not believe this sort of unfounded rumor, listen to the Ministry of Health.”