The first case of swine flu has been confirmed in Kenya.

Public Health and Sanitation minister Beth Mugo addressing a press conference on Monday said samples taken from a 20-year-old British student who is on a field trip in Kisumu tested positive.

The student is at a kisumu hotel which was immediately quarantined following the positive results.

The tests were done by the Kenya Medical Research Institute - KEMRI and other agencies.

However, the minister has  called on the public not to panic saying the country is well prepared to handle Swine Flu outbreak.

She says the Flu is curable and the government has enough drugs in its stores.

Mugo said public health officials were on high alert and are screening visitors at the airports and border points.

On Saturday, Mugo allayed fears of a Swine Flu outbreak in the country.

Samples taken from the patient for testing at Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) laboratories proved negative for the H1N1 influenza virus. 

Mugo said the patient suspected to have been infected with the flu was a 20-year old Kenyan lady who is a student at a university in London.

The student who had arrived UK on Friday was rushed to AAR health clinic at sarit centre after she developed a slight fever and flu like symptoms similar to those of the swine flu.

The doctors examined her alerted Kemri officials after she disclosed that she had been in contact with a friend who later tested positive for influenza A H1N1 in London.

The clinic was closed and the patient transferred to Kenya's main referral hospital, the Kenyatta National Hospital where she was placed in isolation ward as tests went on at Kemri.

A press statement from AAR said the first results had ruled out presence of the H1N1, adding that the affected clinic had been reopened.

Mugo assured the public during a press conference that the suspected case had been confirmed negative.

The announcement by the minister came as a relief to Kenyans.

'Government prepared'

She reiterated that the country is fully prepared to handle any confirmed AH1N1 cases.

" The government with the support of World Health Organization-WHO has stocked over 50,000 doses of tamiflu for treatment of any confirmed cases of Influenza a H1N1 and stocked personal protective equipment for the health workers" She said.

She urged health workers and the general public to report any suspected case to the national surveillance unit and the national influenza centre through the following contacts: 0722 331548, 0202040542, 2718292.

News about the suspected case spread across Nairobi via SMS overnight on Friday causing panic across the city.

The H1N1 virus first emerged in April in Mexico, which has recorded 116 deaths and 8,279 cases, according to the WHO.

On 11 June, the WHO declared a global flu pandemic, meaning that swine flu virus was spreading in at least two regions of the world.

According to the latest figures from the WHO, there have been 263 deaths and nearly 60,000 cases in some 100 countries and territories.

US health officials estimate that at least one million Americans have been infected with swine flu since the H1N1 virus emerged nearly three months ago.