Red alert on swine flu

Back Page Lead
28-04-09

THE government has alerted all health personnel over the swine flu and has directed them to step up surveillance over the possible outbreak of the disease in the country.
“We have the structures to deal with any outbreak. All health officials in the regions have been given guidelines to that effect,” the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Elias Sory, said in an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday.
He said there should not be any cause for alarm, since the country was on top of the situation.
He said the country had drugs to deal with the situation, adding that the drugs that were used against the outbreak of bird flu in the country was effective against the swine fever.
Dr Sory said in spite of that, an emergency meeting of the technical committee on health would be meeting to adopt other strategies on the matter.
Swine flu is a respiratory disease, caused by influenza type A, which infects pigs. There are many types, and the infection is constantly changing.
Until now, it had not normally infected humans, but the latest form clearly does, and can be spread from person to person, probably through coughing and sneezing.
Symptoms of swine flu include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue.
Although most cases so far reported around the world appear to be mild, about 100 lives have been lost in Mexico.
Cases have also been found in Canada, the US and in Spain as of Monday afternoon. On Sunday, the Mexican Health Secretary, Jose Angel Cordova, said suspected swine flu cases in his country had risen to 1,614.
There are 20 confirmed cases in the US, six in Canada and one in Spain, the first case in Europe. In most cases outside Mexico, people have been only mildly ill and have made a full recovery.
The BBC reports that the European Union Health Commissioner, Androulla Vassiliou, has warned against travel to areas hit by outbreak of swine flu, amid growing concern over the spread of the virus.
A number of countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe have begun screening airport passengers for symptoms, while Germany's biggest tour operator has suspended trips to Mexico.
Several countries have banned imports of raw pork and pig products from Mexico and parts of the US, although experts say there is no evidence to link exposure to pork with infection.