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Flu in the Caribbean

M

mixin

Well-known member
My friend asked me recently if the Haitians had been hit hard with the pandemic flu and that prompted me to to a little research. Considering it's a very poor country, I would expect reporting to be almost non-existant. Except for the fact there are a lot of aid workers from the US (and other countries) who go there and might have brought back news that the Haitians were stricken by the pandemic also.

So a quick Google search showed the Bahamas had an estimated population of 305,655 in '07 and around 4.6 million tourists in '08; 85% of which were Americans. I would assume those figures are comparable to 2009; considering all those tourists and all the flu we've had in the US...and yet there were (luckily) only 4 flu deaths in the Bahamas?

Bermuda is another example: it has a population of over 64,000 and is the third most densly populated place in the world according to http://www.bermuda-online.org/population.htm. With the over-crowding and tourism, I would have thought flu would have spread rapidly through their country. The site states there is "a very high rate of AIDS and HIV. However, Bermuda reports these accurately." I would assume they are very watchful of any respiratory diseases. And yet, they report only 1 flu death.

I'm curious what their seasonal flu stats are?

Here's the list from Ironorehopper's post with the last Euro stats:

Cumulative number of fatal cases as of Jan 18
Central America and Caribbean
Bahamas … – 4
Barbados … – 3
Bermuda … – 1
Cayman Islands … – 1
Costa Rica 3 – 50
Cuba … – 53
Dominican Republic … – 23
El Salvador … – 32
Guatemala … – 18
Honduras … – 16
Jamaica … – 7
Nicaragua … – 11
Panama … – 11
Saint Kitts and Nevis … – 2
Saint Lucia … – 1
Suriname … – 2
Trinidad-Tobago … – 5

The stats for other countries are here:
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139504
 
Re: Flu in the Caribbean

mixin said:
My friend asked me recently if the Haitians had been hit hard with the pandemic flu and that prompted me to to a little research. Considering it's a very poor country, I would expect reporting to be almost non-existant. Except for the fact there are a lot of aid workers from the US (and other countries) who go there and might have brought back news that the Haitians were stricken by the pandemic also.

So a quick Google search showed the Bahamas had an estimated population of 305,655 in '07 and around 4.6 million tourists in '08; 85% of which were Americans. I would assume those figures are comparable to 2009; considering all those tourists and all the flu we've had in the US...and yet there were (luckily) only 4 flu deaths in the Bahamas?

Bermuda is another example: it has a population of over 64,000 and is the third most densly populated place in the world according to http://www.bermuda-online.org/population.htm. With the over-crowding and tourism, I would have thought flu would have spread rapidly through their country. The site states there is "a very high rate of AIDS and HIV. However, Bermuda reports these accurately." I would assume they are very watchful of any respiratory diseases. And yet, they report only 1 flu death.

I'm curious what their seasonal flu stats are?

Here's the list from Ironorehopper's post with the last Euro stats:

Cumulative number of fatal cases as of Jan 18
Central America and Caribbean
Bahamas ? ? 4
Barbados ? ? 3
Bermuda ? ? 1
Cayman Islands ? ? 1
Costa Rica 3 ? 50
Cuba ? ? 53
Dominican Republic ? ? 23
El Salvador ? ? 32
Guatemala ? ? 18
Honduras ? ? 16
Jamaica ? ? 7
Nicaragua ? ? 11
Panama ? ? 11
Saint Kitts and Nevis ? ? 2
Saint Lucia ? ? 1
Suriname ? ? 2
Trinidad-Tobago ? ? 5

The stats for other countries are here:
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139504
Click to expand...

Why is it so bad here in the US and not in the Caribbean? As you say so many Americans go there and you would think it would spread. Makes you wonder? I am glad they do not have to deal with it.
 
Re: Flu in the Caribbean

Saint Kitts and Nevis: Population 40,000/2 deaths
Trinidad-Tobago: 1.2million/5 deaths
Barbados: 285,000/3 deaths
Bahamas: 307,000/4 deaths
USA: 305,000,000/3,500 deaths

When you do the math, some of these countries are coming out WORSE than the USA when it comes to H1N1 deaths.

For population figures: https://www.cia.gov/index.html
 
Re: Flu in the Caribbean

Missouriwatcher,
I did consider the population/death ratio for some of them; but then when I added in 4.5 million tourists (Bahamas), the numbers of deaths seemed to be kind of small. Then, add in the over-crowding and I thought that should change the situation even more.

Have we heard anything about their hospitals being swamped with flu cases, like many other places?
 
Re: Flu in the Caribbean

What about USA's "mexican" tourists (illegals)? And with the Swine Scare, did the tourist rate drop?

"BASSETERRE, St. Kitts ? THE scale of the current global economic problems has blown a hole in the region?s tourism industry and while there are faint signs of recovery, 2010 does hold some uncertainty for the industry.

This is according to the December 2009 installment of the Caribbean Economic Performance Report issued by the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance (CCMF)...

"The decline in demand intensified in 2009 as worldwide tourist arrivals are estimated to have contracted by 6% in the first six months of the year in the wake of a deep recession in source markets and the influenza H1N1 outbreak,? the CCMF report states..."
http://www.sknvibes.com/Business/NewsDetails.cfm/12571
 
Re: Flu in the Caribbean

I would assume it is a reporting/testing phenomenon: Who cares about missing a handful of H1N1 deaths in Haiti when hundreds of people are dying of dengue, leptospriosis, etc. I don't think Haiti cares too much about H1N1.
 
Re: Flu in the Caribbean

Our tourists.., that's funny :) Some of ours are pretty hard to count so I can't answer your tourism question.

Google tells me http://www.tmb.ie/exodus/news.asp?title=Haiti-reports-92-cases-of-H1N1-influenza-so-far-but-with-no-deaths&id=175686:
On Dec 2, Dr Gabriel Timothy, the director general of the Department of Public Health of Haiti, announced that the Department of Epidemiological Surveillance has identified 92 cases of influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus infection in Haiti. No deaths have been reported.
...country has enough medicine [neuraminidase inhibitors?] to treat all persons who might be affected by the pandemic (H1N1) virus. Dr Timothy stated that people infected with influenza (H1N1) virus were treated similarly irrespective of their condition and place of residence. The 92 cases include both foreigners and Haiti nationals. ...said that vaccine is available for care-providers, pregnant women, and other groups at risk.
['Influenza A virus' has been translated as 'pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus' throughout on the presumption that the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus is the subject of this report. - ProMed Mod.CP]
Click to expand...

Indiana's population, over 6 million, ? hospitalizations, 40 deaths from flu.
Haiti's population over 9.5 million, 92 cases, 0 deaths from flu.

Alert, from the couple of articles I read, they seemed to be very on top of things regarding the flu? From this translated article:

Welcoming the fact that no deaths have been recorded so far, Dr. Timothy Gabriel, said that health authorities have since launched a campaign several months of testing of influenza A (H1N1) across the country and have strengthened the capacity of the national laboratory.

Quarantine measures are applied health system following the detection of new cases and stocks of Tamiflu are also available for treatment, inform the head of the Department of Public Health.

The public is invited to continue to respect the rules of basic hygiene including: wash hands with soap, avoid contact with people who are coughing or sneezing. .
Click to expand...

http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=16147
 
Re: Flu in the Caribbean

alert said:
I would assume it is a reporting/testing phenomenon: Who cares about missing a handful of H1N1 deaths in Haiti when hundreds of people are dying of dengue, leptospriosis, etc. I don't think Haiti cares too much about H1N1.
Click to expand...
I agree. I also suspect that this is why there hasn't been much activity reported in central Africa as well.
 
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