ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates has quarantined an airline passenger arriving from Canada suspected of having swine flu, the Health Ministry said, in the first such reported case in the Gulf.
Health officials suspected that the passenger was showing symptoms of being infected with the A(H1N1) virus, after which he was isolated, the ministry said, as cited by the official WAM news agency.
The passenger, whose nationality was not given, has been placed under observation, the ministry added.
The report did not mention where the passenger was quarantined or through which of the region’s two international airports he had transited — in the capital Abu Dhabi or in Dubai, a trade and tourism hub.
English-language daily Gulf News, meanwhile, cited an unnamed official as saying a Canadian doctor of Pakistani origin had presented himself to a hospital in Al-Ain in the Abu Dhabi emirate after suffering suspected symptoms of swine flu.
The man’s blood sample has been sent to a laboratory in London, the official added.
The UAE, a federation of seven emirates, has stepped up traveler surveillance and installed thermal cameras at airports.
