JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – South Africa on Wednesday reported the continent's first suspected cases of swine flu, as countries from Mauritania to Mozambique stepped up precautions against the disease.
"There are two new cases, but they have not been confirmed," health ministry spokesman Fidel Hadebe told AFP, adding that the two women had recently returned from Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak.
National Institute for Communicable Diseases director Lucille Blumberg said neither woman was seriously ill.
One returned from Mexico with flu-like symptoms on April 24, but had already recovered after receiving anti-viral treatments.
Samples of the virus were not stored properly, so health authorities cannot test the specimens to confirm if she did have swine flu.
Health department director general Thami Mseleku said that authorities were moving to install thermal imaging systems at Johannesburg's international airport to detect arriving passengers suffering from fevers, but could not say when they would be ready.
Mseleku said hospitals have been instructed on how to treat the disease, and South Africa is preparing to assist its much poorer neighbours in the event of an outbreak in the region.
"We are prepared for any eventuality including treating cases," Mseleku told the SAPA news agency.
The African Union is working to establish a continent-wide mechanism to respond to a possible eruption of swine flu, the AU's Peace and Security Commissioner Jean Ping said in Addis Ababa.
The plan will be implemented in conjunction with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Health Organisation and other bodies, he said.
"We hope to establish a continental plan for prevention, and if necessary a mechanism to fight this outbreak that has not yet affected Africa," Ping said.
Egypt's Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali ordered the immediate slaughter of all 250,000 pigs in the country as a precuation against swine flu, in the first such move in the world.
"It has been ordered to immediately begin the slaughter of all herds of pigs in Egypt," Gabali told reporters after a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.
He said slaughterhouses were to begin the culling process on Wednesday at the fastest rate possible.
In east Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia have announced they will screen travellers entering their territories in addition to stepping up surveillance.
In West Africa, Senegal and Mauritania say they are stepping up health monitoring at their airports, while Mozambique has dispatched medical teams to its main seaports, including some of the busiest in southern Africa.
Authorities in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, have said they were ready to cope with an outbreak of the disease.
The swine flu outbreak that began in Mexico has raised fears of a global pandemic after suspected and confirmed cases were detected in parts of Europe, the United States and New Zealand.
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