Namibia steps up flu vigilance

WITH swine flu now officially a pandemic, Namibia has stepped up efforts to keep the virus out of the country.

The World Health Organisation lifted the Influenza A (H1N1) alert phase to level six on Thursday, meaning that the virus is spreading around the world.Kahijoro Kahuure, Permanent Secretary of Health, said on Friday that for Namibia it meant that monitoring and surveillance measures would be further sharpened.’The Ministry of Health and Social Service has finalised its preparedness plan and has put relevant measures in place. Namibia is therefore already in the response phase for this influenza pandemic,’ he said.Kahuure said public and private sector doctors, nurses and other health practitioners have been informed of what procedures to follow.’Antiviral medication (Tamiflu) has been procured and distributed to all public hospitals.’’For all our health workers the clinical case definition and testing procedures for laboratory confirmation of suspected cases (who fully comply with the clinical case definition) are in place and have been distributed,’ he said.Kahuure said active surveillance has been activated so that Namibia’s health authorities will be able to act immediately if and when a confirmed case occurs.’The public is encouraged to remain calm and take note of previous health information issued by the Ministry in conjunction with its partners in this regard,’ he said.On Friday, media reports said the race was on among drug makers to produce a vaccine. GlaxoSmithKline said it would be ready within weeks to begin large-scale vaccine production. Sanofi-Aventis also said it had started working on its own version while Swiss pharma giant Novartis announced it had created an experimental vaccine that has not yet been tested in people. Novartis’s vaccine was made with a cell-based technology that may prove faster than the traditional way of making vaccines, which relies on chicken eggs.Many rich countries like Britain, Canada and France signed contracts with pharmaceuticals long ago, guaranteeing them access to pandemic flu vaccine. The WHO and others estimate that about 2,4 billion doses of pandemic vaccine could be available in about a year’s time.The likely scramble for vaccines will leave many people in poorer countries empty-handed.So far, swine flu has been mostly detected in developed countries like the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia.On Friday, the WHO said that 74 countries had reported nearly 30 000 cases, including 145 deaths. But so far, the virus appears to be mild. Most people don’t need medical treatment to get better.But the virus might have a more devastating effect in people with underlying health problems. About half of the people who have died from swine flu have had complications like asthma, diabetes and obesity.* See also report on page 13