Swine Flu: Cases reported at bordering Quintana Roo, Yucatan
Countries around the world are facing one of the most daunting challenges since the Spanish Flu ravaged the globe in 1918 and 1919, killing twenty-one million people – more than the Great War. The latest count of persons affected by the swine flu in Mexico alone stands in excess of sixteen hundred and growing making the local outbreak of conjunctivitis or pink eye, a mere nuisance. Close to a hundred and fifty persons have died. With no known vaccination for swine flu, health officials in several countries are on full alert in the fight to prevent the disease from either penetrating their borders or from controlling its spread among their populations. With Mexico right at our northern border and cases registered as close as Quintana Roo and Yucatan; Belize stands at risk. Health officials, flanked by their Minister, Pablo Marin, called a news conference today to share what measures they are undertaking. They say it’s a collaborative effort among NEMO, the Ministry of Education, and the police, immigration and customs departments. Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali Reporting
While its name is Swine Flu and the disease originates from pigs, health officials say pork that has been properly cooked poses no threat to humans. But the strain of virus that is currently sweeping across the globe can be fatal as it continues to be in neighboring Mexico.
Dr. Paul Edwards, Epidemiologist
“This new virus which is thought to be a combination of swine virus that normally occurs in pigs combined with avian virus and now with human virus has produced a new virus and that’s a type A virus and it’s called H1 N1. So that happened in the swine. And those who worked along and close with those animals that were sick became sick. And what has happened now that is of grave concern is the fact that there is transmission from human to human.”
And while transmission can be easily accomplished, especially in densely populated areas, no cases have been detected so far in Belize. Since the weekend, the Ministry of Health began taking measures in the highly-trafficked northern border area with Mexico and has also outlined some basic guidelines for everyone to follow. At the same time they strongly discourage Belizeans from entering the infected areas north of our border.
Dr. Michael Pitts, Dir. Of Health Services
“I have a bottle of hand sanitizer and this is just to demonstrate that for the population is simple business of hand sanitation, washing hands and so on will help in protecting the population against avian influenza. The other area is that the cough etiquette like I said before—we try not to cough in other persons’ faces and some procedures as to how you do this. Often people tend to cough in the hands like this, but we have a newer approached that say we try to cough away from the hand but still to cover the nose and the mouth.”
Pablo Marin, Minister of Health
“We have nurses in the Free Zone on the two entry points. They are looking at any symptoms and looking around with different work places and that’s how we are monitoring the system in the free zone. We have given gloves and masks to the customs, immigration, free zone also, border management. So this has been done from Saturday.”
Ethan Gough, Ministry of Health
“It’s actually not recommended to close your border for example. Past influenza pandemic have shown that closing of border points are not very effective in preventing something like swine flu from entering the country and there are economic implications in closing a border. So you’ll have a situation where you will close the border, it doesn’t prevent introduction into Belize and then you have still suffered some economic losses from having the borders closed. So we are using the border points as an opportunity to screen people coming into the country where as the Minister said we have personnel with their gloves and their masks who are asking questions about symptoms for people coming into the country so that we can identify potential or suspected cases. And then those people are being advised to seek medical care or seek medical attention at the nearest provider.”
Dr. Paul Edwards
“Belizeans going to Mexico; what we are highly recommending as a Ministry is that you go unless it is a case of emergency. What has happened, there are some rumors out that there are some cases in Chetumal and it’s going to spread like wildfire. So our recommendation is unless it is a case of emergency then you should go and even think about it.”
But while the Ministry’s education campaign is good for prevention methods, the very imminent possibility of an outbreak of swine flu in Belize will be the ultimate test of readiness. Viruses such as SARS and Bird Flu a few years ago never challenged that ready mode but it has afforded the health sector the theoretical know-how to treat an epidemic of a relative scale to act. Most people who seek help after regular flu-like symptoms recover. But if people wait too long and the symptoms worsen then there would only one main challenge in Belize.
Dr. Michael Pitts
“You have mild disease over to severe disease. So mild disease would be those with the sniffles and the fever and the lethargy and so on that we can do some basic things. Where you have problems would be in severe diseases where you may have say severe pneumonia with respiratory stresses and so on. But at that level, we have support, you know that for the country of Belize in the Ministry of Health, we have four regional health facilities; we certainly have Karl Heusner with support. So in all facilities, we have teams who are trained to treat people with severe pneumonia. Now some issues, if we have issues for ventilators, we may be challenged there. So our approach is to say to people, listen, let’s understand the symptoms, identify them and come early so that we could begin to treat early and limit the need for the need for severe, major intervention like ventilator.”
For the more severe cases, the Ministry will also have access to the prescription drug Tamiflu. At present there is only a small supply of the drug available in Belize, but health officials say an adequate supply will be provided by PAHO and the World Health Organization.
Dr. Michael Pitts
“This drug was being stockpiled. It was being stockpiled in Panama for the region of the Americas and even today we confirmed that we are able to get access dosages to treat six thousands person in the country of Belize through that facility and when we look at that, we think that might be a reasonable amount to have for the country.”
Dr. Beverley Barnett, Country Rep., PAHO/W.H.O.
“Whether it’s procurement, whether it’s training and whether severance evolution and I just wanted to assure everyone that PAHO/W.H.O. and the rest of the U.N. family in Belize will continue to support the national response.”
But while health officials say they are prepared to respond to any suspicious case of swine fever, they are relying heavily on the education campaign they have embarked on and call on Belizeans to do their part by practicing good hygiene at all times.
Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.
At present Belize is seeking access through the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA for testing of suspected cases.
