SWRHA acting medical director Dr Robin Sinanan has confirmed that over the past few months, there were patients being treated for H1N1 (Swine Flu). He said the figure was not alarming and the patients are being treated.
“I think by now H1N1 would be endemic to the country. It’s global. Folks travel all the time and we are always screening people on travel and when they return. The ministry has a national programme where they screen people who are returning from all countries, so yes, it is always on the cards.”
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, meanwhile, said that there have been two flu deaths in three years. He said the flu that causes stuffy nose is different to those that are fatal. He said the ministry has brought in 75,000 doses of the influenza vaccine, which are free to the public.
Deyalsingh said that the key objectives of the ministry in 2019 was to change the “chit system” of blood donation to a fully voluntary process, eliminate mother-child transmission of HIV and Syphilis, attain the global 90-90-90 targets for the elimination of HIV by 2020 and to decentralised mental health treatment; so that patients would no longer have to cram the St Ann’s Hospital.