Summary
27 April 2009
Europe's first confirmed case of swine flu has been diagnosed in Spain. The country's health ministry confirmed the news on Monday morning, after tests on a man who had recently returned from a trip to Mexico.
Reporter:
Steve Kingstone in Madrid
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Report
The patient is a twenty-three year old man from the province of Albacete in south-eastern Spain. He arrived home from Mexico with a fever last Wednesday and was isolated in a hospital ward on Saturday night. Confirming the diagnosis of swine flu, Spain's health minister, Trinidad Jimenez, said the man was being treated in accordance with World Health Organisation procedures and that his condition was not serious.
A further twenty suspected cases are under investigation in Spain, in locations ranging from Madrid to Mallorca, Barcelona to the Basque Country. The patients concerned had all recently returned from Mexico. None of the cases is thought to be life threatening.
The minister said it was now an 'urgent priority' for different regions of the country to share information. She stressed that Spain had sufficient supplies of anti-viral medicines.
Steve Kingstone, 大象传媒 News, Madrid
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Vocabulary
- patient
- someone who is suffering from an illness or disease and is being treated for it
- a fever
- unusually high body temperature caused by an infection
- ward
- one of the parts or rooms into which a hospital is divided
- swine flu
- a respiratory disease caused by influenza type A which normally infects pigs. Symptoms of swine flu in humans are similar to those produced by standard, seasonal flu (fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue)
- in accordance with
- as instructed by
- under investigation
- being looked at/examined
- to be life threatening
- to be severe enough to cause death
- urgent priority
- something that is so important that it cannot be delayed
- sufficient supplies
- enough
- anti-viral
- that can fight harmful viruses
