CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Official Note

The Cuban Ministry of Public Health informs that, as part of the measures taken to confront the threat represented by the Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic now affecting 30 countries, all mechanisms organized and exercised for several years to confront a possible pandemic of avian flu have been activated.

All international health control measures were reinforced in airports, ports and marinas, as well as stepped-up epidemiological monitoring in all of the country’s health units and institutions of collective groups.

Travelers arriving from Mexico included students from various Mexican states returning from their vacation; they began to arrive in Cuba from April 25, and belong to one of the Jagüey Grande medical schools in Matanzas province.

Given the epidemiological threat constituted by people entering the country from Mexico, and given the probability of finding sick or infected individuals, strict monitoring of respiratory symptoms was initiated among these students, and starting April 26, respiratory symptoms were detected in two students, who were immediately hospitalized and isolated.

Daily and systematic epidemiological monitoring made it possible to detect 14 Mexican students with catarrhal symptoms considered to be light, and most of them are now outpatients under epidemiological and laboratory observation. All of the students have been investigated and to date there has been one confirmed case of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, a diagnosis made by the Institute of Tropical Medicine, a center of reference for the PAHO/WHO in several transmissible diseases. Rigorous epidemiological studies are continuing, as is the adoption of the corresponding measures of attention.

Epidemiological clinical work and international health control monitoring has made it possible to study throughout the country, from April 27 to date, 84 people of eight nationalities with epidemiological clinical suspicion and another 511 people who are contacts of the notified cases. All of them have been confirmed negative, except for the one Mexican student who tested positive, the first confirmed case of the A (H1N1) virus in our country.

All of the necessary measures remain in force and the resources, capacities and preparation of medical personnel are available for facing the international solution and its evolution.

CUBAN MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH
MAY 11, 2009

Translated by Granma International (Cubaminrex- Granma Internacional)

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