Sunday, August 1, 2010

The first UAE resident to contract swine flu has made a full recovery.

The patient was discharged on Wednesday from Tawam Hospital after 10 days of treatment and attention, said Dr Ali Ahmed bin Shakar, the director general of the Ministry of Health.

"The relatives of the patient are doing well and do not show any symptoms of swine flu,” he said. “Hence, it is unlikely they contracted the disease."

According to WAM, the UAE’s official news agency, relatives of the man who have been in quarantine were expected to be released on Thursday.

Bin Shakar said the patient had reported immediately to the health authorities when he developed symptoms of the disease.

He said: "This has made it easy to bring his condition under control as the case responded quickly to the treatment".

He added that the ministry has not received any other reports of the disease within the 10 days since the first case was reported.

Bin Shakar said: “No one among those in contact with the patient had shown symptoms of the disease. This means we have successfully contained the spread of the disease.”

The man was confirmed as having swine flu on Monday.

He had flown into Abu Dhabi from Canada the week before.

At the time no passengers on his flight were showing any symptoms of the virus and the ministry said precautionary and preventive measures were in place in line with World Health Organisation guidelines.

Among measures that have been taken in recent months is the use of thermal scanners at UAE airports to spot people with unusually high temperatures in case they have swine flu.