MANILA, Philippines?The De La Salle University?s (DLSU) Taft Ave. campus will be voluntarily suspending classes from June 4 to 14 because one of its foreign exchange students tested positive for swine flu, or the influenza A(H1N1) virus.

The 21-year-old female foreign student arrived in the country last May 12 but reported ?very mild? flu symptoms only on May 29.

The student consulted a health facility on May 31. She tested positive for the H1N1 virus, according to results issued on Wednesday by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City.

Classes for the DLSU?s first trimester officially started on May 25.

DLSU officials led by its president and chancellor, Bro. Armin Luistro, met with Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and health officials Wednesday to discuss how to prevent the spread of the virus in the school.

At 4 p.m. Wednesday, Luistro announced a 10-day suspension of classes.

According to Department of Health (DoH) guidelines, school administrators may announce a suspension of classes if there is a confirmed case among students and personnel.

Duque said it was likely that the foreign student, who is the country?s 22nd confirmed case of the H1N1, got the virus locally and not from her country of origin.

?If you count 10 days from May 12, she should have been free of the virus if she did not manifest symptoms 10 days from that date,? Duque said.

DLSU officials have already informed the students and faculty who were in the same class as the foreign student to avoid going to malls and crowded areas, to monitor their health at home and to immediately report to the DoH (711-1001) and the DLSU (526-5913) if they experience flu symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat.

The entire DLSU population numbering around 15,000 has been advised to avoid large crowds and to do self-monitoring for the next 10 days.

Luistro said the foreign student attended four classes, each of which had about 30 students and a faculty member. She stayed in a dormitory near the school.

Duque and Luistro declined to identify the nationality of the student, but an official of the Japanese Embassy confirmed she was from Japan.

Saudi Arabia Wednesday confirmed its first swine flu case?a Filipino female nurse who arrived in the kingdom last Friday on a Gulf Air flight from the Philippines.

The Filipina, who is being held in quarantine in a hospital in the capital Riyadh, showed first symptoms last Monday, Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah told Saudi news channel al-Ekhbariya. With Marlon Ramos and Reuters