And while there has been no official confirmation of the H1N1 virus
on Caye Caulker - today we found the community of just over one thousand, 8
hundred villagers on edge. Schools were closed, September celebration activities
cancelled, and tourism in limbo, no one knew what would happen next. Keith Swift
has the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Today Caye Caulker was on alert for H1N1. Government workers and street vendors
were wearing masks and villagers with flu like symptoms sought assistance from
a doctor stationed at the island’s community center. Ermino Cho was one
of those villagers.
Ermino Cho, Caye Caulker Resident
“I have a real bad cough, dry cough, it hurts me and it is dry….it
gives me a hot fever. For three nights I couldn’t sleep very well.”
Ground zero for the outbreak is the Caye Caulker Roman Catholic Primary School
which has been shut down since Monday. Principal Beatriz Chan says that more
than one hundred of her three hundred students are sick.
Beatriz Chan, Principal – Caye Caulker RC School
“From the first week I’ve been sending home children like at 
a dozen children every day, ten to twelve children, and it wasn’t normal
and I was wondering what was happening to our children and so on Monday our
private doctor phoned me and asked me how are the children at school because
a lot of parents are taking children to him that have fever and I told him that
well here it is the same, I’ve been sending them home with hot fever with
vomiting, with headaches and it is not normal for us.
We have one third of our children have been affected with this virus and
the last count we did was 139 children and we have 339 in all and so due to
this fact and it is spreading so rapidly among them, because the parents keep
sending back the children, and then they are spreading it and its spreading
so rapidly, they have decided to close down the school for this week and see
how it goes.”
Early this afternoon, classes were still in session at Ocean Academy - one
of the island’s two high schools. The school later made a decision to
close. Principal Heidi Curry says that 6 of her 32 students were already sick.
Heidi Curry, Principal – Ocean Academy
“We have had students who’ve been sick. In the beginning it
was like any other situation where there was no reason to be worried but now
we do have several students out. So like I said we are speaking with the health
officials so we get official word and instruction on what to do.”
And along with suspension of classes, Village Chairman Ralph Humes says that 
as of now – all public gatherings on the island will be postponed.
Ralph Humes, Caye Caulker Chairman
“We will need to postpone or cancel some of our September celebration
activities. So far we had already cancelled out the children’s rally that
should have taken place on the 18th of this month and a vary of other sporting
events. Our ceremonies and road march and carnival parade will be discussed
at a meeting tonight with the celebration committee and then we will decide
which will be postponed and which will be cancelled. The Ministry has encouraged
us to disregard whatever mass gatherings that we would be having because they
don’t want the outbreak of this flu to spread in the whole community.”
But the effect of the H1N1 scare may affect how this island community makes
its money, tourism. Villagers are concerned that the H1N1 scare will scare tourists.
Ralph Humes,
“It will definitely have a big effect on tourism. Since this morning
we had some concerns from some of the restaurant owners and even the hotel owners
asking us if we were going to close down the island. Of course we are not going
to close down the island but we have to make people aware of what is happening
on the island. It will affect them to a certain extent but like I said, that
is the most money making product of our island but at the same time we need
to secure people’s lives and people’s safety.”
The Caye Caulker Village Council was scheduled to meet this evening
to determine their next move.
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