Extracted from the Barbados Advocate
Barbados now has a batch of 20 000 H1N1 vaccines. The vaccines have been secured by the Ministry of Health at a cost of US $7.50 each, in preparation for the expected second wave of the pandemic.
Word of this has come from officials of the Ministry of Health during a press conference at the Ministry’s Jemmott’s Lane headquarters yesterday, where it was also reported that there has been one new case of the virus recorded.
Addressing the media, Minister of Health, Donville Inniss, said that the individual had to be hospitalised, but subsequently discharged. According to Epidemiologist, Dr. Karen Springer, not having a case since October, 2009, it is likely that the recent case is the beginning of the second wave.
“Our first wave was during a period of 22 weeks from June to October and then we had a period where we had no confirmed cases for approximately 10 weeks and this has been our first case since October 2009 ... We are continuing to monitor all respiratory activity, [but] currently the respiratory activity is low, but we are continuing to monitor it,” she said.
The latest case, Inniss said, fell into one of the high risk categories, which include pregnant women, diabetics, persons with heart disease, sickle cell anaemia or asthma, or persons with conditions which weaken the immune system and those who are morbidly obese.
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