The H1N1 scare emerged in April; public interest and concern peaked
in May, waned in June, further receded in July and it just about fell off the
public awareness radar by the end of August when only 30 confirmed cases had
been recorded. But no more, h1n1 is back in the headlines tonight because 5
schools in Caye Caulker Village have been closed and now the ministry of health
is asking village leaders to cancel all mass gathering for the next few days.
The call comes after 139 students at the primary schools started showing
flu-like symptoms since school re-opened at the end of August. That’s
a third of the school population; add that to half the teachers being sick â€"
and you got justifiable cause for a shutdown. But the Ministry of Health today
held a press conference to say that they hope to stop the spread by suspending
public gathering â€" because for an infection explosion like this one, just
closing down the school isn’t enough.
Dr. Michael Pitts, Director of Health Services
“What we have observed is that there is a significant outbreak of
flu like illness in one high school affecting a significant part of that high
school and we feel that because of that we needed to take some measures to try
and interrupt the spread of the flu like illness. In our mind epidemiological
we have to treat these as if though they are H1N1. What he had to do, what we
recommended for Caye Caulker is that they have a suspension of school activities.â€
Melinda Guerra, Acting Regional Manager - Central Health Region
“Most of the students presented mild flu like illness, signs and symptoms.
They have been treated and sent home. We have a few of the students and also
six teachers were six out of a total of twelve teachers. They have been treated
too and I must add that treatment is taking place both at the Caye Caulker Health
Center and by the private doctor in the village.â€
Dr. Michael Pitts,
“What was occurring in Caye Caulker was that during the early part
of September we saw maybe two cases on one day, three on another day, seven
on another day but over the fourteenth and fifteenth we saw a jump to where
we had 50 cases in one day and we said hold on, we have to take some drastic
action. In addition to that those fifty cases were in one small population group,
one school, so there was some rapid spread there so we had to do something to
interrupt that.â€
Ethan Gough, Epidemiologist
“Closing the school by itself might be ineffective unless other measures
are taken to minimize the possibility of transmission from those who are ill
to the general population.â€
Dr. Michael Pitts,
“What they have done beyond the school is ask the village council
if they can suspend the major family gathering that will bring kids to get with 
the wider population. In Caye Caulker they have a standing population of 2.500
and there is only one major primary school and it is our view that the primary
school is basically a reflection of the whole village and essentially just about
every household there would have some kid who would have been exposed.
So what we’re saying to Caye Caulker is let’s try and interrupt
this epidemic and for the next couple of days, suspend major gatherings that
will bring family units together. The ones that we think should be off are the
school parade, certainly the flag raising ceremony.
But I think with what we are doing, we can interrupt quickly and within
another four or five days things should be able to return to normal activity.
We are basing our action on what we view as an incubation period. So we are
taking a step to say for the period of incubation let’s try to do this
and try to interrupt the transmission.â€
Dr. Jorge Polanco, Deputy DHS
“We scrutinize very much the data collected from Caye Caulker over
the last few days and we are of the opinion that for sure there was one or two
index cases that could have brought, that most likely brought this infection
to the island. This is just our suspicion right now looking at the preliminary
data but every epidemic of this nature, this is how it behaves. You only need
one person to get infected to go back to that community and diseases like this
will spread very quickly because it’s person to person contact.â€
Caye Caulker has two preschools, one primary school and two high schools.
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