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Namibia: Two More Flu Cases Confirmed At Coast

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  • Namibia: Two More Flu Cases Confirmed At Coast

    THERE are now four confirmed cases of the H1N1 pandemic flu strain at the coast - the only confirmed cases in Namibia so far, Dr Jack Vries, Chairman of the National Health Emergency Management Committee, said yesterday.

    According to him, the PathCare laboratory in Erongo has tested 19 people for the flu, while the Namibian Institute for Pathology in Windhoek tested another two.

    Four of the 21 samples - all of them from the coast - tested positive, while eight samples were negative. The results of eight samples - one from Swakopmund and seven from Walvis Bay - are still pending.

    Those who have tested positive so far are a 13-year-old girl and a 38-year-old woman from Walvis Bay, a 25-year-old Swakopmund man and a 27-year-old man from Swakopmund, whom The Namibian reported about last week.

    "Two of the men who tested positive were part of the group of 13 Swakopmunders that brought the flu in from Phuket (Thailand) after being on vacation there about month ago," Dr Vries said.

    "It is important to establish whether the other cases were related to the group, otherwise it seems as if the flu may have spread to other people unknowingly," he said.

    The Walvis Bay woman and girl were not part of the Phuket tour group.
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    All the suspected and confirmed patients were treated by private doctors at the coast.

    "Those doctors whose patients test positive have the responsibility to go to the families to find out who there may have been sick or not. Doctors must now bring their side to stop the spread of this thing," Dr Vries said.

    According to him the national vaccination campaign against the H1N1 flu will begin on May 17.

    Experts of the World Health Organisation arrived in Namibia yesterday for a training session with the health sector in Windhoek this week, and next week the regions will be visited, Dr Vries said.

    THERE are now four confirmed cases of the H1N1 pandemic flu strain at the coast - the only confirmed cases in Namibia so far, Dr Jack Vries, Chairman of the National Health Emergency Management Committee, said yesterday.
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