The whole world has been running scared of the Novel influenza A (H1N1) virus, more commonly known as “Swine Flu“, for several weeks now. What reportedly started in Mexico has spread all over the globe.

Probably the biggest swine-flu related news in my home country right now is that De La Salle University, based in the Philippine capital Metro Manila, has declared that classes are suspended until June 14th at the Taft campus. One of their students, a 21-year-old Japanese man who came into the country for a foreign exchange program, was found to have been infected by the virus.

The student did not exhibit the symptoms until at least a week after classes began at DLSU. The university’s school year started early, on Monday, 25th May 2009.

This foreign exchange student, apparently, was able to pass through the thermal scanners at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminal during arrival. He had attended four classes during his first week at school, interacting with at least a hundred students, not counting DLSU faculty and staff.

As of this writing, the student’s roommate has already checked into a hospital to self-quarantine, as a precautionary measure. The Department of Health has already begun a trace on all the people the infected girl had somehow been in contact with.

DLSU is currently at Alert Level 3, hence the suspension of classes. All other educational institutions in Metro Manila are at Alert Level 2, with classes still ongoing.

As for the Middle East, I picked up from ABS-CBN‘s The Filipino Channel (TFC) news that a Filipino nurse working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia has been found positive of carrying the A (H1N1) virus. This person has just come back into Saudi after a trip home to the Philippines.

So far, Oman’s Ministry of Health has been reporting through various media (newspapers, SMS, television, etc.) that the Sultanate remains free of Swine Flu.

I hope this will not change until the epidemic scare abates.