Sunday, January 2, 2011

Fears now rise in Kenya over possible new swine flu epidemic

January 3 2011 at 00:00

The swine flu outbreak in Britain is causing panic in East Africa, particularly Kenya.

The disease has claimed the lives of 24 British adults since October 2009, and there is fear it might re-emerge in the region, as tourists fleeing the cold winter season in the Northern Hemisphere flock into the East African countries.

Some holiday makers have complained that unlike last year, passengers arriving from Europe and Asia are no longer subjected to screening or filling detailed forms on their health status.

But the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation urged Kenyans not to panic as no cases had been identified so far.

The Director of Public health, Shahnaz Sharif said the re-emergence of the disease in England should not be a big issue in Kenya, having been among countries affected by the 2009 outbreak.

“Swine flu is no longer a new disease in Kenya; we have dealt with it in the past and we can deal with it again,” Dr Sharif said.

Dr Sharif however, said the dry conditions in the region would make it difficult for an outbreak to occur.

“The cold conditions are ideal for swine flu and other influenzas to spread. However, in Kenya our cold season is between May and July,” said Dr Shariff.

In 2009, 191 cases of swine flu were confirmed in Kenya. The source of the deadly flu is believed to have been a British medical student from the college of medicine at Nottingham University in the UK, who was part of a group of 35 others on a field trip to the KEMRI-CDC laboratory in Kisumu.

The student tested positive for the deadly virus and was isolated at the Duke of Breeze Hotel in the lakeside town of Kisumu.

Presently, while medical experts in Britain deny that the virus ever disappeared and are uncertain as to whether all the new cases are of swine flu, both the Independent and the Daily Mail have raised fears of “a new epidemic.”

A press release from the National Health Service said that most of the fatalities had underlying health conditions.

However, the numbers of people hospitalised with severe flu have also risen, and there have been several outbreaks in schools and at a military base.

The UK’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) has warned that although the overall number of cases of flu is not unusual for this time of year, the number of severe cases of H1N1 is higher than expected in England.

HPA said, worldwide, flu rates are currently low, although some areas of South Asia and central and western Africa are reporting surges in H1N1 detections.

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