AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
MORE than half the children at a Riversdale agricultural school were absent yesterday after a Grade 9 pupil tested positive for swine flu ? the first schoolchild to fall victim to the virus in the Southern Cape.
Tertia Binkle, mother of 15-year- old Harry Binkle, said her son had started feeling ill after a visit to Cape Town.
He displayed ?normal? flu symptoms last week, but when he failed to improve she took him to a doctor on Friday for tests, which showed up positive for the dreaded H1N1 virus.
Tertia, Harry and his 16-year-old sister Tabitha, a Grade 10 pupil at the same Riversdale school, were placed under quarantine and Harry was prescribed the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. Their father is abroad.
The news comes less than a week after University of Stellenbosch student Ruan Muller, 22, became the first fatality in South Africa.
Test results are still pending on whether a Durban patient who died of pneumonia had had swine flu.
Andre Latsky, principal of Oakdale agricultural high school in Riversdale, said 134 pupils were absent on Tuesday while 180, or 55%, were not at school yesterday, apparently after coming down with ?seasonal influenza?.
?All pupils with flu symptoms are being treated and high-risk cases are receiving preventative anti-viral drugs,? Latsky said.
The school had been following the guidelines prescribed by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases since finding out about Binkle on Monday. Latsky said recent inclement weather had contributed to the large number of pupils who were off sick with ?seasonal winter flu?.
Most of the pupils were boarders who were being sent home if a doctor confirmed they had flu, ?to limit the effect?, Latsky said.
The school was taking advice from local doctors, he added.
?There is no need to panic. It is emphasised that only one case of H1N1 has been confirmed.?
Western Cape Health MEC Theuns Botha, a Riversdale resident, said people should stay home if they displayed flu symptoms and consult a doctor if their condition deteriorated. Education MEC Donald Grant said there had not been any decision to close schools. ?Each cluster of confirmed influenza A (H1N1) at schools will have to be reviewed on its own merit,? Grant said.
There have been 42 confirmed cases of swine flu in the Western Cape.
The World Health Organisation has estimated that two billion people, or one in three of the world?s population, will have been infected by the end of the pandemic.
A Uitenhage pupil has become the latest swine flu victim in Nelson Mandela Bay, bring the (A) H1N1 toll in the city to four, Eastern Cape health officials said yesterday. Provincial Health Department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said yesterday the total reported cases of swine flu in the Eastern Cape had increased from 17 to 25.
The Uitenhage pupil, who attends Brandwag High School, had become infected about a week ago, said principal Wilhelm Meyer.
He would not give the pupil?s name because of school policy. Asked if pupils had panicked, Meyer said: ?Doctors and departmental officials have said there is no reason to panic.?
Other areas affected include Grahamstown, with three cases, and Humansdorp, Jeffreys Bay and St Francis Bay, each with one case. East London has had 12 cases reported so far, Kupido said. Additional reporting by Luyolo Mkentane
http://www.weekendpost.co.za/article.aspx?id=454480
Tertia Binkle, mother of 15-year- old Harry Binkle, said her son had started feeling ill after a visit to Cape Town.
He displayed ?normal? flu symptoms last week, but when he failed to improve she took him to a doctor on Friday for tests, which showed up positive for the dreaded H1N1 virus.
Tertia, Harry and his 16-year-old sister Tabitha, a Grade 10 pupil at the same Riversdale school, were placed under quarantine and Harry was prescribed the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. Their father is abroad.
The news comes less than a week after University of Stellenbosch student Ruan Muller, 22, became the first fatality in South Africa.
Test results are still pending on whether a Durban patient who died of pneumonia had had swine flu.
Andre Latsky, principal of Oakdale agricultural high school in Riversdale, said 134 pupils were absent on Tuesday while 180, or 55%, were not at school yesterday, apparently after coming down with ?seasonal influenza?.
?All pupils with flu symptoms are being treated and high-risk cases are receiving preventative anti-viral drugs,? Latsky said.
The school had been following the guidelines prescribed by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases since finding out about Binkle on Monday. Latsky said recent inclement weather had contributed to the large number of pupils who were off sick with ?seasonal winter flu?.
Most of the pupils were boarders who were being sent home if a doctor confirmed they had flu, ?to limit the effect?, Latsky said.
The school was taking advice from local doctors, he added.
?There is no need to panic. It is emphasised that only one case of H1N1 has been confirmed.?
Western Cape Health MEC Theuns Botha, a Riversdale resident, said people should stay home if they displayed flu symptoms and consult a doctor if their condition deteriorated. Education MEC Donald Grant said there had not been any decision to close schools. ?Each cluster of confirmed influenza A (H1N1) at schools will have to be reviewed on its own merit,? Grant said.
There have been 42 confirmed cases of swine flu in the Western Cape.
The World Health Organisation has estimated that two billion people, or one in three of the world?s population, will have been infected by the end of the pandemic.
A Uitenhage pupil has become the latest swine flu victim in Nelson Mandela Bay, bring the (A) H1N1 toll in the city to four, Eastern Cape health officials said yesterday. Provincial Health Department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said yesterday the total reported cases of swine flu in the Eastern Cape had increased from 17 to 25.
The Uitenhage pupil, who attends Brandwag High School, had become infected about a week ago, said principal Wilhelm Meyer.
He would not give the pupil?s name because of school policy. Asked if pupils had panicked, Meyer said: ?Doctors and departmental officials have said there is no reason to panic.?
Other areas affected include Grahamstown, with three cases, and Humansdorp, Jeffreys Bay and St Francis Bay, each with one case. East London has had 12 cases reported so far, Kupido said. Additional reporting by Luyolo Mkentane
http://www.weekendpost.co.za/article.aspx?id=454480
