- Title: ISRAEL: Fourth Israeli has H1N1 flu virus
- Date: 6th May 2009
- Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MAY 3, 2009) (REUTERS) ENTRANCE TO TEL AVIV'S SOURASKY MEDICAL CENTRE SIGN READING 'EMERGENCY' VARIOUS OF AMBULANCE BRINGING PATIENT TO HOSPITAL PROFESSOR YEHUDA CARMELI, THE HEAD OF THE EPIDEMIOLOGY DIVISION IN TEL AVIV MEDICAL CENTER, SPEAKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR YEHUDA CARMELI, HEAD OF THE EPIDEMIOLOGY DIVISION IN TEL AVIV MED
- Embargoed: 21st May 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Health
- Reuters ID: LVA100K3NEGOMD4VP8HLOWG02TQM
- Story Text: A 20-year-old Israeli woman is confirmed as the country's fourth person with the H1N1 flu virus.
Tel Aviv's medical centre on Sunday (May 3) confirmed a woman quarantined in its facilities had the H1N1 flu virus, raising the number of people in the country with the virus to four.
"A young woman, 20-years-old, who arrived yesterday from Mexico and had a high grade fever, was hospitalized yesterday and test results that came back today confirmed that she has the H1N1 A virus," Professor Yehuda Carmeli, the head of the epidemiology division in Tel Aviv medical center told reporters. Carmeli added that "the general picture that is coming from the world points out that the disease is of less severity than we expected in the beginning".
The woman returned from Mexico via Madrid on an Iberia flight on Saturday (May 2) and was put in quarantine after reporting a fever.
Passengers on Iberia flight 3752 from Madrid to Tel Aviv who flew with the woman were requested to stay at home for the next week and to immediately seek treatment if feeling unwell.
Israeli airport authorities continued on Sunday (May 3) to encourage incoming passengers to test for possible flu contamination, as two other people suspected of having contracted the virus were still held in quarantine, pending test results.
Though there are no direct flights from Mexico to Israel, passengers arriving at the airport will see signs reading: 'Welcome to Israel, all passengers who have visited Mexico within the last 7 days are kindly requested to proceed to the airport clinic thank you for your cooperation, ministry of health'
"We have been activating this clinic since last Thursday, and we have checked about 120 passengers that went through this clinic. Actually and thank God, all of them were diagnosed as non-sick patients, they were all sent home with the exact directions of staying in house and not going to their places of work for at least seven days since the last day they have been in Mexico," Dr. Michael Averbukh, VP of 'Bikur Holim', company providing health services to airport, told Reuters.
The Israeli Health Ministry also set up a call centre to field inquiries from the public. Since it went operational Thursday morning, Health Ministry nurses have taken hundreds of phone calls. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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