Latin America
On New AH1N1 Aler
Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe was confirmed on
Sunday to have been infected with the AH1N1
influenza, the second Latin American leader
to fall victim to the virus following Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez .
The Colombian authorities said they are
contacting other governments in the region
since Uribe attended a summit of the Union
of the South American Nations last week in
the Argentine city of Bariloche where
gathered leaders of 12 member countries.
So far none of the government officials of
Colombia accompanying Uribe to the summit in
Argentina was found infected with the
disease.
The government has tightened control at
hospitals and health centers to avoid a
large-scale outbreak of the flu in Colombia.
Latin American nations sound the alarm again
since new deaths from the virus were
reported and more cases were confirmed.
Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova
on Friday warned that "we predict the number
of infections will rise to 1 million this
winter," after announcing five new deaths
from the virus, bringing the toll to 184.
About 80 to 100 cases were reported daily
across Mexico in "a very stable phase,"
Cordova said. The current number of
confirmed cases was 21, 264.
Cordova said authorities have drawn up plans
to confront a possible surge in cases in
winter, including more school closures in
most affected areas.
Brazil has reported 584 deaths caused by the
A/H1N1 flu, the highest total in the world.
While in terms of the virus' fatality rate,
Brazil ranks the seventh.
But a vaccine against the virus, which is
still being tested, will not be available
until at least mid-October, according to
Brazilian health officials.
Nicaragua has reactivated its AH1N1
emergency plan less than a month after it
ended due to a re-outbreak of the influenza
pandemic.
President Daniel Ortega decreed on Thursday
a return to the sanitary emergency plan,
which would last 70 days, and under which
necessary actions would be taken to prevent,
control and lighten the impact of the
pandemic.
On the same day, Panama's health minister
warned a second wave of AH1N1 influenza
could increase the number of infected cases
in the country.
"One of the world's concerns is not only
that the flu will reappear, for we are now
in the second wave, but that the virus will
change and mutate to become more aggressive
or resistant to medicine," Franklin Vergara
told an international symposium.
Meanwhile, the president of the Institute of
the Americas Jeffrey Davidow, who was also
present at the symposium, said it was
necessary to deepen international
cooperation in checking the spread of the
virus on the continent.
Davidow warned against panic, saying
government institutions in the Americas will
face the sanitary emergency "with
responsibility."
The World Health Organization (WHO) said
Friday that doctors have detected a severe
form of A/H1N1 flu that infects the lungs
and could cause severe illness in otherwise
healthy young people.
In its latest pandemic update, the WHO said
over 2,185 people have died in the ongoing
outbreak and over 209,000 patients have been
confirmed infected worldwide.
The world health monitor also has predicted
that one in three of the world's population
may eventually be infected by the virus,
which it said is now "the dominant influenza
strain in most parts of the world."
Thus making vaccines available soon is
critical, it added.
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