Tue Aug 4, 3:41 pm ET

KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) – Iraqi authorities have quarantined a hotel in the holy Shiite city of Karbala after a Saudi pilgrim staying there tested positive for swine flu, the provincial governor said on Tuesday.

The decision to isolate the hotel comes just days before commemoration ceremonies in the city, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, for the birth of Imam Mahdi, an 8th century Islamic leader who vanished and who is revered by Shiites as the coming Messiah.

"We discovered the first swine flu case, a Saudi national who arrived in Karbala two days ago," governor Amal al-Din al-Har told a media conference.

"His condition deteriorated and he was sent to hospital in Karbala. After test results were received from Baghdad, they were positive that he had contracted swine flu.

"We quarantined all of the residents of the hotel he was staying at because of fears some of them were infected."

He declined to name the hotel that was quarantined.

Authorities in Karbala have begun distributing surgical masks for pilgrims flocking to the city for Friday's ceremonies.

In late June, nine people were diagnosed with swine flu in Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan, including five members of a women's basketball team and their male coach soon after they returned from the United States.

More than 800 people have been killed around the globe by the A(H1N1) virus, which first surfaced in Mexico in April, and the World Health Organisation has warned that the pandemic is now unstoppable.