False alarm on swine flu case causes panic in southern Turkey

The ward where M.A had received treatment, the ambulance that ferried him to hospital and his home were immediately placed under quarantine for the night.

As of Monday morning, the reports were shown to be false the hospital’s head physician, Ibrahim Demir, declared that the cause of M.A.’s death was not swine flu; however, the exact cause was still unknown.

“M.A., a banker aged 34, was brought to our hospital by the 112 Emergency Team on Sunday night. He had already passed away when he arrived at the hospital. The assertions that the patient died of swine flu do not reflect the truth,” Assistant Professor Ibrahim Demir told a press conference. �

“In our experience, I can say that this kind of death most probably derive from a sudden cardiovascular malfunction. There has been no case of swine flu seen at Akdeniz University Hospital so far”, Demir added.

Assistant professor Dilar Inan, who treated M.A. also rejected the assertions. According to information obtained from the hospital management, Inan said that the patient had never traveled abroad in his life, and the patient was not suspected of suffering from any swine flu symptoms.

M.A. will undergo an autopsy to determine the cause of death, hospital management added.

Antalya Governor Alaaddin Yuksel said that because of the delicate nature of the situation people should be careful regarding speculating and reporting on news related to the issue.

“Antalya is a strategically important city. Nobody has the right to upset the public with unproven assertions,” said Yuksel, adding that the city implemented all the necessary precautions on the first day of the outbreak of the deadly virus.

The Ministry of Health has also confirmed that no cases of swine flu have been reported in Antalya.