Belize has no confirmed cases of swine flu, now called the H1N1 virus. That’s after 16 tests were sent to the Caribbean Epidemiological Center in Trinidad and 13 of them were determined to have type a influenza – which is not the swine flu, that’s the common flu that’s always going around. The remaining 3 have tested positive for other flu like viruses. So the bottom line is, again, and we repeat, there are presently no positive tests for the H1N1 virus in Belize. 10 more cases of interest or suspected cases were sent out for testing today and those results should come back tomorrow. Public health officials held their fourth press conference in six days – and the Director of Health Services Michael Pitts discussed the tests, the state of things presently and the availability of Tamiflu.

Dr. Michael Pitts, Director of Health Services
“Since Saturday we have identified five cases, three suspects and two cases of interest. The three suspect cases came from three of the districts in Belize, meaning Cayo District, Orange Walk, and Belmopan. We have two cases of interest out of Belmopan. The second batch of eight cases came back and they were all negative. Now what this mean, it does not mean that because we’re having negative cases that we decrease the level of alert and response. So we must continue to do the same thing that we were doing since Friday. We will not increase the level of activity but we won’t change the strategy. So we will maintain what we had at the border, what we had in terms of the general public advice.

In regards to Tamiflu, the update is, and Dr. Barnett will give more details, but we are satisfied that we will be getting the support in terms of tangible of supplies in Belize this week.”

Beverly Barnett, PAHO/WHO Rep.
“With regard to the issue of Tamiflu, Belize will be getting supplies from at least initially from the Panama stockpile that has been mentioned before which is a stockpile that WHO and PAHO put in place some time ago for possible response to a pandemic influenza and Belize is supposed to get about 3,000 treatment courses which as the DHS said should arrive later this week.

So with Tamiflu on the way and all tests negative, the news continues to be good for Belize but health officials stress it’s not time to let down your guard.