US official in France diagnosed with swine flu

[May 29, 2009]  PARIS (AP) -- A U.S. official in Normandy to prepare President Barack Obama's upcoming visit has been diagnosed with swine flu and is being treated in a hospital, French authorities said Friday.

Eleven other members of the U.S. delegation were placed in isolation for 24 hours in their hotel rooms and given medical treatment, said an official at the Calvados region administrative headquarters. The official was not authorized to be identified publicly.

The 54-year-old woman was hospitalized in the city of Caen, and will remain for about a week, the official said.

The hotel where the delegation was staying, in the seaside town of Port-en-Bessin, is not far from the beaches where Allied forces landed June 6, 1944, in the D-Day invasion. Obama is coming to the area for the 65th anniversary of the invasion next week.

The swine flu incident comes as veterans, visitors and French, British, U.S. and other officials are streaming into the area for the anniversary.

The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that it "is aware that French hospital authorities have confirmed a case of A/H1N1 in Normandy. The French authorities are taking the appropriate action."

Embassy officials would not further comment on the incident.

The Caen soccer team was meant to stay in the same hotel, in the seaside town of Port-en-Bessin, Friday, but was alerted to the flu diagnosis and went to a hotel in nearby Bayeux instead, said team spokesman Alexandre Lucas.

The hotel was not quarantined.

The French health monitoring agency InVS says 20 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in France and 10 suspected cases are under examination.

[Associated Press; By ANGELA CHARLTON]

AP Sports Writer Samuel Petrequin in Paris contributed to this report.

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