First 'swine flu' case confirmed

South Africa's health department confirmed on 18 June the first case of the 'swine flu' A (H1N1) influenza virus in southern Africa.



Just a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) elevated the status of the mutated avian, swine and human flu virus to a global pandemic, a 12-year-old boy travelling to South Africa from the Untied States tested positive for A(H1N1).



The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) diagnosed the boy after he was admitted to Johannesburg Hospital with flu-like symptoms on 15 June, a day after arriving in the country, according to NICD deputy director Dr Lucille Blumberg.



Blumberg said the boy had received antiviral drugs almost immediately, and WHO infection controls procedures were followed. He has since been discharged and is recovering at home in isolation.



Anyone who may have been in contact with him has been contacted and given the necessary medical treatment, Health Department spokesman Fidel Hadebe told IRIN.



Government agencies and international humanitarian organizations have held weekly H1N1 meetings to monitor the country's preparedness; the meetings will now be stepped up, said WHO spokesperson Eugene Mahlehla.



The Health Department has reassured the public that there are adequate supplies of antiviral medication to handle any potential outbreak of the virus; Mahlehla said WHO was also confident that South Africa could cope.



The confirmed case has so far not altered the Health Department's strategy to deal with H1N1, such as heightened clinical and laboratory surveillance and the training of outbreak response teams in all nine provinces. 



Over 27,700 cases of infection have been reported in now 75 countries, with 141 deaths, according to WHO. The United States and Mexico remain the most affected.



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