Swine Flu Scare!

Yesterday we reported on our front page the first case of swine flu in the country. This was detected at the Effia Nkwanta Hospital in Takoradi in the Western Region. Our story was confirmed by the deputy Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kumbour, in a telephone interview who told us that he was waiting to be briefed on the issue.

The swine flu patient, according to the story, was believed to be an Australian national with AngloGold mining company, who contracted the disease from his native country whilst he had travelled for a brief vacation. Swine flu is a respiratory disease which is caused by a strain of the influenza type A virus known as H1N1.

Swine flu was first recorded in Mexico which later swept through Britain, America and Canada. As it stands now Ghana is the only African country that has recorded its first swine flu patient, albeit he is a foreign national. So far since the disease emerged in Europe it has claimed many innocent lives.

According to World Health Organization, which has been asking countries to take measures to prevent the spread of the virus, the H1N1 is the same strain which causes seasonal outbreaks of flu in humans on a regular basis. However, the latest version of the H1N1 virus is different. It contains genetic material that is mainly found in strains of the virus that apart from affecting human beings, also affect birds and swine.

And although the strain was first detected in pigs, it is now a wholly human disease, which as a result of its mode of infection is spreading fast across Europe. The mode of infection includes: coughing and sneezing. That is to state that one can contract the swine flu from an infected person through either coughing or sneezing. This is what makes the disease somehow scary.

Among the symptoms of swine flu in humans are coughing, body aches, chills and aching limbs. What is more, some affected patients have also reported nausea and diarrhoea. Although health experts and WHO have assured us that there is no cause for alarm, and that 98% of infected people need no medical treatment in order to recover from swine flu, TODAY understands that there is an underlying fear if one should contract the disease.

This fear, according to health experts, is when the strain mutates and becomes more virulent which poses a greater threat to human life. And this has been characteristic feature of previous flu pandemics. The good news is that this has not happened.

In many of the European and Asian countries, stringent measures have been taken by health authorities and the government to either prevent the disease from entering their boarders or containing it in the case where a country has recorded patients of swine flu. For example, in the UK a comprehensive flu surveillance system has been put in place to detect and report flu related cases.

But, what is baffling us on this paper is how authorities at the Kotoka International Airport were not able to identify this flu patient. It speaks volume of the fact that there are no monitoring services at our entry points to identify flu cases. We recall that when the swine flu was first recorded in Europe, the Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa Yankey, assured Ghanaians that his ministry has put in place adequate measures to identify swine flu patients at the country's entry points.

We hope that this assurance that was given by the Health Minister still stands that the flu scare would be mitigated and addressed. It is our firm belief that the hospital authorities at Effia Nkwanta and the Ministry of Health will contain the situation to prevent its spread to other parts of the country.

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