Damascus - Syria's health minister on Saturday announced the first confirmed case of the H1N1, or swine flu, virus in the country. An Australian woman in Syria on holiday tested positive for the virus after complaining of flu symptoms, Syrian Health Minister Reda Said announced in a statement sent to reporters on Saturday.
Syrian health authorities were testing the woman's traveling companions and were "taking all necessary precautions" to contain the spread of the disease, he said.
The minister stressed that no government could keep any country completely free of infection.
More than 70 countries have now reported cases of the virus, which is rarely fatal. Of the 33,902 cases reported in the United States by the end of June, for example, only 170 have resulted in death.
US health officials say that each year, the common, or seasonal, flu kills 36,000 people in the United States alone.
