RIYADH: The Ministry of Health announced Tuesday two more swine flu fatalities, which brings the total number of reported H1N1-linked deaths in the Kingdom to six.
The new fatalities are a 15-year-old Saudi boy and a Sri Lankan salesman with a UAE address who was identified as Mohammed Mafaz Mohammed Saleem, 31. The man was found dead in his hotel room on Monday.
“Both deaths are in the capital,” said Health Ministry Spokesman Dr. Khalid Al-Mirghalani. “The Saudi boy died here Tuesday. He was suffering from a congenital heart problem.”
Saleem was an employee of RGG group, subsidiary of Al Hokair Group, and traveled to Riyadh regularly to sell ladies apparel items to retail outlets in Riyadh.
Sri Lankan Embassy Charge D’affaires Sabarullah Khan told Arab News that the death certificate that was delivered to the Lankan government cited the cause of death as a “heart attack.”
“This is really shocking to hear that the death was due to H1N1,” Khan said.
The embassy official said that Saleem visited numerous health centers, “yet none of them diagnosed the disease properly, and such negligence had led to an unfortunate death,” said Khan.
Saleem arrived here on June 25 with a severe cough and high fever and was reportedly refused admission for treatment. Saleem visited a government hospital around 11 a.m. on Friday. He visited another hospital at around 6 p.m. on Sunday where a doctor took samples of saliva and mucous and prescribed medicine for pneumonia before sending the man on his way. The report showing the man had swine flu arrived on Monday, the day his body was found in a hotel room in the capital.
The staff at the hotel — the Golden Tulip Hotel in Qasr Al-Nasseriyah — was tested for swine flu because the Saleem had resided there for nine days.
In related news, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) and the Saudi Health Ministry have officially registered a new medicine for the treatment of swine flu, the local daily Al-Madinah reported on Tuesday.
According to the newspaper, SFDA Deputy Chairman Dr. Saleh Bawazir said the Saudi-made medicine named Oselta is considered the first medicine in the world that is effective against swine flu particularly after the end of the preventive period of Tamiflu.
“This 75 mg capsules drug is an alternative medicine which is 30 percent less than the price of the current medicine,” he said.
Bawazir did not give the name of the national company that invented the drug but said a medical doctor should take the medicine only on prescription to those who actually have H1N1.
As cases of swine flu grow in the Kingdom, Deputy Chairman of Committee of Health and Treatment in Iranian Parliament Hussein Ali Shehrayari said Iran would not send Iranian pilgrims for Umrah during the month of Ramadan in view of the spread of swine flu disease, the Saudi Press Agency said, quoting Iranian newspapers on Tuesday.
“In view of the spread of pandemic influenza virus of type A/H1N1 and the increasing number of people infected with the disease, it is necessary to take precautionary measures for the prevention of this disease,” Shehrayari said.
