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Population in the dark about the H1N1 virus—says Dr Frank Anthony

Jan 05, 2016 News

Shadow Public Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, has cried out against the Public Health Ministry’s means in conveying information on the H1N1 virus (Swine Flu), stating that there is no detailed strategy outlined to tackle the virus should an outbreak occur.
Last month, Chief Medical Officer, Shamdeo Persaud, disclosed that the first imported case of the virus has been detected in Guyana after a Guyanese travelling from China returned home.
He had stated that the man travelled from China, to the U.S. and Trinidad and Tobago before returning home to Guyana. Fortunately, he said the man displayed no symptoms of the virus on the flight and therefore placed no one at risk.
“This is a very serious issue because it is affecting some countries in the Caribbean. People are dying from it,” Anthony said, noting that the virus was very contagious.
So far, the patient in Guyana has been sent overseas for treatment after his results returned positive from the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Ministry is currently monitoring some of the man’s close relatives and health care workers who had attended to him at a private hospital. They are ensuring that the full 21 days of observation is observed.
It is transmitted whenever an infected person coughs or sneezes and releases tiny drops of the virus into the air. Persons who have it can spread it one day before they have any symptoms and as many as seven days after they become ill. Despite its name, the virus is not transmitted by eating bacon, ham or any pork product. Symptoms include coughing, fever, sore throat, body aches and headaches.
It was first known as swine flu in the past because persons who contracted it had to have had direct contact with pigs. But, this changed several years ago when a new strain of the virus emerged and spread among people who had no contact with pigs.
Anthony stated that while the population is conscious that there are measures in place to tackle the issue if it increases, there is no transparency about the measures. “We hear that there are strategies but we don’t know what it is,” he charged.
Unless there are adequate measures in place, he said Guyana would continue to see more cases of swine flu. He said that the Ministry needs to educate the public more on what the virus is and how it is transmitted.
Also, he stated that the Ministry ought to inform the public on the preventative measures on how they would contain the virus if an epidemic occurs.
“We don’t even know if they have any medications to treat the flu,” he stated.
Persaud, however, had indicated that the Ministry has tightened its surveillance security system at the main Ports of Entry in Guyana, especially at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) and the Ogle International Airport.
The Ministry, he said, is implementing precautionary measures from the “Keep Ebola and other Infectious Disease out of Guyana Strategy”. The strategy is divided into six crucial areas of coordination and control; rapid detection, isolation and risk reduction; points of entry; clinical management; laboratory diagnosis; and information, education and communication.
Recently, Trinidad and Tobago reported four H1N1 related deaths. Last Wednesday, researchers revealed that there was a new strain of the virus with the potential to “transmit efficiently in humans” and cause a pandemic. One hundred and thirty-nine swine flu viruses in pigs in China were isolated by scientists and it was discovered that they formed two groups distinct from the current human H1N1 virus.
“Our study shows the potential of EAH1N1 SIVs to transmit efficiently in humans and suggests that immediate action is needed to prevent the efficient transmission of EAH1N1 SIVs to humans,” the scientists said.
“We found that the EAH1N1 swine flus got the highest risk score among six different subtypes of viruses, suggesting that the EAH1N1 SIVs may pose the highest pandemic threat among the influenza viruses currently circulating in animals”.

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