CAIRO: Over 11,000 pigs have been slaughtered as part of the government's precautionary measures against swine flu, Saber Abdel Aziz, an official at the Veterinary Service Authority, told Daily News Egypt. Up to press time 11,591 pigs were slaughtered. He emphasized, however, that the total number of pigs in Egypt which was erroneously reported as 300,000 is actually 156,000 only, none of which have tested positive for swine flu. Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center released a special report on the state of the H1N1 virus in Egypt, outlining all the measures taken to combat a potential pandemic. The Ministry of Health canceled all doctors' vacations and set up a swine flu hotline (105) for citizens to report suspected cases of the disease. The report also refuted rumors of the existence of the disease in Egypt and alleged attempts by the government to withhold information in that regard. The government defended its decision to slaughter all pigs, despite advice by international organizations such as the UN's World Health Organization not to do so, as a step towards reconstructing the hog breeding industry into a healthy environment instead of the slum areas were they were fed garbage. As of time of press, the WHO reported that 24 countries have confirmed 2,384 cases of influenza A/H1N1 infection. According to WHO's recent report, Mexico reported 1,112 confirmed human cases, including 42 deaths. The United States reported 896 human cases, including two deaths. The following is the updated countries hat reported confirmed cases with the flu but had no deaths, according to WHO: Austria (1), Canada (214), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Colombia (1), Costa Rica (1), Denmark (1), El Salvador (2), France (5), Germany (10), Guatemala (1), Ireland (1), Israel (6), Italy (5), Netherlands (2), New Zealand (5), Poland (1), Portugal (1), Republic of Korea (3), Spain (81), Sweden (1), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (32).
