Ethiopia says Swine flu not in country yet

April 30, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) — As countries across the world panic over the deadly swine flu epidemic, Ethiopia on Wednesday announced that is has no reports of the swine flu so far.

In a joint news conference representatives from the ministry of the health and the Ethiopian health and nutrition research institute announced that there is no any case of swine flu reported across the country but the nation remains on high alert.

Representatives added that a national task force drawn from the world health organization and public health emergency management team of the ministry of health is set up to take preventive measures ahead of any appearance.

According to the representatives, Ethiopia has already launched efforts to import necessary medical drugs and other relevant inputs.

The Ethiopian Red Cross (ERC) also has planned to train 800 volunteers as part of the national preventive strategy.

Mean while experts said that the East African region is not well prepared for a pandemic like swine flu and they warned that it could be a catastrophic unless strong measures are taken ahead of appearance to the region.

In a meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, African humanitarian NGO’s, Red Cross actors and diplomats discussed pandemic preparedness.

“We are using Mexico as a teaching opportunity to promote planning in this region,” said Gregory Pappas, senior coordinator and technical specialist for pandemic preparedness at Interaction, the American Council for Voluntary action.

Swine influenza or “swine flu” is a high contagious acute respiratory disease of pigs, caused by one of several Swine influenza virus.

Morbidity tends to be high and mortality low, according to WHO. The viruses are normally species specific and only infect pigs, but they sometimes cross the species barrier to cause disease in humans.

“This region cannot even handle cholera,” the expert said. “An outbreak or pandemic flu would be catastrophic.”

Key developments on swine flu outbreaks, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and government officials: Deaths: 12 confirmed in Mexico and one confirmed in U.S. Sickened: 248 confirmed in Mexico. Confirmed elsewhere: 131 in U.S.; 34 in Canada; 13 in Spain; eight in Britain; three in Germany and in New Zealand; two in Israel; one each in Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands.

(ST)