JEDDAH: A private hospital in Jeddah has released a report revealing that a 13-year-old boy has been admitted with swine flu. The report said that before admittance to hospital the child had been given Tamiflu but when his condition worsened medication was ceased. Officials from Health Affairs and the mayoralty later sprayed the boy's home as a precautionary measure. Adil Turkistani, the head of Preventive Medicine at the Primary Healthcare Department, said that the hospital had initially supplied a defective analysis sample and that only a second test confirmed the boy had swine flu. “The Ministry of Health's Preventive Medicine department recommends that a joint Health Affairs and mayoralty team be dispatched to the residence of any suspected case of swine flu to identify persons who may have come into contact with the person in question and identify the source of mosquitoes, and to spray the site once the person has tested positive,” Turkistani said. “That is what has been done in this case.” He said that the boy was given Tamiflu in accordance with Ministry of Health guidelines, reiterating that swine flu symptoms consisted of a high temperature and nasal congestion. “A failure to take medication within the first 48 hours can lead to further complications,” he said.
