| H1N1 Outbreak Shuts Down Schools in Caye Caulker |
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| Written by Shane D. Williams |
| Thursday, 17 September 2009 13:30 |
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The Ministry of Health held a press conference on Wednesday, September 16, to address the situation. Dr. Michael Pitts, Director of Health Services, said that the Ministry is treating the outbreak as an Influenza A(H1N1) outbreak. He said that though results for 14 suspected cases on the island have not returned as yet the Ministry felt it was best to combat the outbreak with every available resource. Dr. Ethan Gough, Chief Epidemiologist, recently took part in a course in Barbados where it was agreed that it is not effective to close down schools in times of outbreaks without limiting mass gatherings. Therefore, the Ministry of Health, is also considering suspending mass gatherings on the island until the situation is under control.There have also been smaller scale outbreaks within schools of Belize City. There are reports of influenza outbreaks in several schools in Belize City but the Ministry can only confirm an outbreak at St. Catherine’s Academy. According to Dr. Pits, there have been students at St. Catherine’s Academy reporting sick since September 3 but suddenly, on Tuesday, 18 students began experiencing flu-like symptoms. The Ministry said the level of the outbreak at St. Catherine’s Academy does not warrant suspension of classes at this point. A vaccine for the Influenza A(H1N1) will be issued in the United States at the beginning of October. One shot is said to be enough to protect an adult human from the virus. However, Dr. Pitts said that the vaccine will not reach Belize anytime soon, not even in a year’s time. That is because the countries that can produce the vaccines are presently concerned about their own population. So far there have been 277,607 confirmed cases of H1N1 in the world and 3205 deaths. In the Americas there have been 124,219 confirmed cases and 2,638 deaths. Closer to home, in Central America there have been 91 deaths; while in Belize there have been 30 confirmed cases with no deaths reported from the virus. |
A rapid influenza outbreak caused the Ministries of Health and Education to shut down schools on the island of Caye Caulker. The center of the outbreak is at the only primary school on the island, Caye Caulker R.C. Primary School. As of Tuesday, September 15, 129 of the little more than 300 students of the primary school have been experiencing flu-like symptoms. Half of the staff reported ill as well.