Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize are now the only countries in Central and North America that have still not recorded any positive cases of the H1N1 virus. But some experts say that it is not a matter of “if” it will appear in Belize, but “when.” And if they are right, when it does, there will be some remedy as the Ministry of Health today announced that it has received a donation of a little over three-thousand treatment courses of Tamiflu from the Pan American Health Organization. Each course is about 10 pills.

The shipment which is valued at over one-hundred thousand dollars was handed over at the Ministry of Health headquarters in Belmopan today. It will be available free of cost – but it will only be distributed to fill prescriptions for those who have been identified by doctors as suspected cases. To be effective, Tamiflu must be administered within two days of the appearance of symptoms.

Up to the end of last week, only two persons had been prescribed Tamiflu in Belize and both those cases came back negative. The total number of confirmed cases of H1N1 recorded worldwide are 5251 in 30 countries. Mexico has recorded 56 deaths.