5 more test positive to swine flu in Egypt

CAIRO: The number of U.S. citizens infected with swine flu at the American University in Cairo rose to seven, after five more cases were diagnosed as positive Tuesday, the Egyptian health minister said.

The new cases — four students and a faculty member — tested positive after a dormitory for foreign students and staff was put under quarantine and everyone inside was screened for the strain, said the minister, Hatem el-Gabali.

The measures followed the initial discovery of the first cases Sunday night in two 23-year-old students who had arrived from the U.S. for a summer program at the university and were staying at the dormitory.

The two, a male student from New Jersey and a female student from Florida, arrived on May 28 but only developed symptoms last Friday. They were recovering in hospital and would soon be released, el-Gabali said.

The discovery prompted Egyptian health authorities to impose a seven-day quarantine at the dormitory, located in the upscale Cairo neighborhood of Zamalek and housing 234 people, including 110 students from 10 different countries.

The university itself last year relocated from the city center to the desert outskirts of the capital where a huge new campus was built.

The rest of the dormitory residents tested negative but the health ministry is administering Tamiflu as a prophylactic to all, said AUC President David D. Arnold.

The quarantine would be in place through June 15, consistent with the incubation period for the virus, Arnold said, adding that the students and staff have enough food and water, and access to Internet inside the dorm.

"We have great sympathy for all of the people who are being confined to the dormitory ... it is not a place you would like to be shut in for a week at a time," Arnold told a press conference Tuesday.