Egypt Reports First Swine Flu Death

CAIRO (AFP)--Egypt on Sunday reported its first death linked to swine flu, after a 25-year-old woman coming back from a pilgrimage to the Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia died in the hospital, the health ministry said.

The unidentified woman arrived in Egypt on Thursday and was taken to hospital in the Nile Delta province of Gharbia "suffering from rheumatic fever, lack of oxygen in the blood and a stroke," the health ministry said in a statement carried by the official MENA news agency. "She died in hospital on Saturday."

Health ministry officials had warned of the swine flu risked posed to the millions of Muslim pilgrims who travel to Saudi Arabia every year.

Egypt's top cleric, or mufti, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, said he would not issue a decree barring Egyptians from making the pilgrimage, but health officials said all returning pilgrims would be quarantined.
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