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Government Suspects MP Died Of A/H1N1

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  • Government Suspects MP Died Of A/H1N1

    Source: http://www.radiovop.com/index.php?op...019&Itemid=755

    Government Suspects MP Died Of Swine Flu

    HARARE, August 22, 2009 ? The government is investigating the death of Emakhandeni-Entumbane MP, Cornelius Dube, to establish if the lawmaker could have died of the deadly A H1N1 pandemic, well known as swine flu.

    Health ministry permanent secretary, Gerald Gwinji told journalists this week his ministry was awaiting a report from Bulawayo province, which would reveal if the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) legislator indeed died of the disease.

    ?I don?t have any facts as of now but we will find out. We will get a report from the province,? said Gwinji.

    ?But anyone who dies under suspicious circumstances of a pandemic prone disease like the late honourable (Dube), investigations would be done. The provinces are responsible for that. They carry out investigations and then they give us the report and we await the actual confirmation of the cause of death in terms of its being A H1NI or other issues.

    ?We don?t immediately get that information, because it takes a bit of time to get the confirmatory test. Once we get the confirmatory test, then we will be able to share that with yourselves (journalists).?

    Dube, 45, died recently in Bulawayo?s Mater Dei Hospital.

    Should it turn out the late MP died of swine flu, he would be the first public official, and perhaps the first Zimbabwean to have died of the disease.
    Government also said this week it had discovered five cases in the eastern border city of Mutare.
    Meanwhile a Harare-bound cross border trader suspected of having contracted swine flu in neighboring South Africa has been quarantined at Masvingo General Hospital, health authorities confirmed.

    Provincial Medical Director (PMD) Dr Robert Mudyiradima told Radio VOP that Mercy Sithole (38), a cross border trader who was coming from South Africa for some shopping, was forced off a Go-Liner bus after the authorities and other passengers suspected her behavior could be linked to the virus.

    ?It is true that we have a patient quarantined at the hospital because it is suspected that she could have contracted swine flu. But this does not mean that the province has been hit by the plague,? said Dr Mudyiradima.
    However, sources at the province?s largest health referral center said the results would not be out soon owing to a crippling strike by doctors.
    The Prime Minister and leader of MDC Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday urged striking doctors to return to work in order to avert disaster as swine flu cases increase. Tsvangirai acknowledged that the country's health delivery system was still in intensive care and said a lot still needed to be done including improving working conditions of health personell.
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