Guatemala reports first confirmed A/H1N1 flu case

Special Report: World Tackles A/H1N1 Flu 

MEXICO CITY, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Guatemala's Health Ministry on Tuesday reported the nation's first confirmed case of A/H1N1 flu, according to news reaching here from Guatemala City.

"The first case of A/H1N1 flu virus has been confirmed, according to the report sent to us by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), which is located in the U.S. city of Atlanta," the Ministry said on its web site.

The patient is an 11-year-old girl, who has been in treatment for four days and has not been sick enough to be hospitalized, the nation's health minister Celso Cerezo told media there.

The girl's two sisters have tested negative for the virus, which causes breathing difficulties, headaches, muscular pains and sharp increases in temperature.

Cerezo said that the girls' family had recently visited Mexico and said that samples from her parents were currently being studied in the CDC.

Cerezo placed Guatemala on orange alert, which means hospital staffs will have to use facemasks and gloves when they deal with the public and stricter border controls will be applied at international ports and airports.

However, the Guatemala government has not yet ordered the closure of schools, restaurants and places where people gather in large numbers.

The new strain of flu has killed 29 and infected 913 people in Mexico. Over 1,700 people were sickened all over the world. Only two deaths have been registered outside Mexico, both in the United States.