Govt studies swine flu

Apr 27, 2009

THE Government is still studying the outbreak of swine flu in North America before coming up with measures to stop the spread of the virus to Uganda, officials of the health ministry and WHO said yesterday.

By Anthony Bugembe
AND AGENCIES

THE Government is still studying the outbreak of swine flu in North America before coming up with measures to stop the spread of the virus to Uganda, officials of the health ministry and WHO said yesterday.

“We have never experienced the disease here,” said Nicholas Kauta, the commissioner for livestock health and entomology.

“So we have to go back to our books to find out all the risk factors before we can come up with an official position or control measures.”

He noted that diagnosing and treating foreign diseases was difficult since there was no local experience available.

“We are going to work closely with the Government to come up with measures to stop the pandemic from entering Uganda,” said Benjamin Sensasi, the information officer of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Uganda.

Governments around the world yesterday rushed to stop the spread of swine flu. The virus had killed 149 people in Mexico by press time and had spread to the United States, Canada and Europe.

While the virus has so far killed nobody outside Mexico, it has proved it can spread quickly between humans, raising fears that the world may be facing the flu pandemic.

The virus is widely called swine flu, although it has components of classic avian, human and swine flu viruses and has not actually been seen in pigs.

The outbreak has prompted several countries to ban the import of pork, but WHO says the virus does not spread by eating infected pork.

The US government has already declared a public health emergency while the European Union urged citizens to avoid non-essential travel to areas affected by swine flu.

Oil prices fell more than 3% to below $50 a barrel as investors feared a new blow to an already fragile global economy if trade flows are curbed and manufacturing is hit.

New York City has 45 confirmed or likely cases of swine flu and that number is expected to rise as testing of more than 100 sick students continued last night.

Spain became the first country in Europe to confirm a case of swine flu when a man who returned from a trip to Mexico last week was found to have the virus.

A New Zealand teacher and around a dozen students who recently returned from Mexico were also being treated as likely mild swine flu cases. Suspected cases were also reported in Britain, France, Italy and Israel.

In Mexico, schools throughout the country have been closed until May 6, while Mexico City authorities have shut bars, restaurants, cinemas and even churches to prevent the disease’s spread.

Many countries have stepped up surveillance at airports and ports, using thermal cameras and sensors to identify people with fever, and WHO has opened its 24-hour “war room” command centre.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the world to make sure poor countries do not bear the brunt of a possible pandemic.

“The swine flu outbreak shows yet again that, in our interconnected world, no nation can deal with threats of such dimension on its own,” Ban told reporters.

He added that if the outbreak becomes a pandemic, global solidarity will be crucial.

“Poorer nations are especially vulnerable,” he said. “They have been hit hard by other crises this year, food, energy, the global economy, climate change. We must ensure that they are not also hit disproportionately hard by a potential health crisis.”

He said that the World Bank and other UN agencies would “mobilise to ensure that countries needing additional financial resources to combat an epidemic will have them.”

Health activists have warned that developing countries could struggle to access the drugs as deals securing medicines for wealthy governments could drain the global supply chain.

Developing a vaccine against the variety of swine flu circulating will take several months, experts have said.

Facts about swine flu
Symptoms:
Fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, fatigue and lack of appetite

Spread:
From person-to-person through coughing and sneezing or through contact with infected pigs, not by eating pork

Treatment:
Antiviral drugs Tamiflu, made by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding, or Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline.

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