Health Ministry officials have contacted the President’s Residence after President Shimon Peres and staff members met with visiting youths on the Taglit Birthright program.

It was later learned that about 18 members of the group and almost an equal number of IDF soldiers escorting them were infected with swine flu, prompting the urgent letter to the President’s Residence.

President Peres and about a dozen staff members were in contact with the group and they are all being checked and monitored for signs of the illness.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)