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Barbadians from all walks of life have been expressing concern at the Swine Flu pandemic sweeping neighbouring countries. Too close for comfort many are thinking! If the reports in the international press are to be believed the virus originated in Mexico. The 23 month old who died in Texas, USA within the last 24 hours was a Mexican child who had sought treatment in the USA.

The medical authorities in the USA are being very negative in their forecast on how this pandemic will spread. This is not good news for the Barbados authorities, North America is a top three tourist market for Barbados. The positive spin is that Barbados has always enjoyed a diversified tourist product unlike Bahamas and others.

At this point we can only hope that the Barbados government is able to galvanize all the stakeholders to treat with this matter with the seriousness it deserves. Reports out of Mexico indicate that the tourist resorts are now ghost like in activity. Barbadians have been lulled into believing over the years that such catastrophic events cannot ever happen in Barbados.

Bloggers have been expressing their opinions on the matter. We have been inundated with interesting emails from BU family members to blog on the issue. We also want to thank BU family member Tourism Monkey who was the first commenter to alert the BU family on the subject.

We urge Barbadians every where to cooperate with the authorities to ensure that we keep Barbados Swine Flu free. Let us all exude positive karma, let us pray, whatever it takes!

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  1. Late to Reply Avatar
    Late to Reply

    Iam happy to back on home soil and taking some BU news, but once againg the idiots that posts on this cite like Dark Knight turn a communicable disease political. T he etiology of the H1N1 flu virus has not been completed by CDC but all you internet reading experts have your false opinions. CDC have error on this virus and it is not more deadly than any other flu virus and the level 5 was immaturely enforced by WHO. How ever i was please when i past though the Grantle Adams International Airport i saw PORT HEALH OFFICALS being very vigilant.

  2. Dark Knight Avatar
    Dark Knight

    @ Late to Reply

    Listen Jackass!!!

    Who is turning something political? Show the evidence of shut up, “klown”

    Livinginbarbados asked a question and I merely gave a response, you fool!!!

    If this discussion is too high for you then shut up, idiot!

    You would not know political if it stared you in the face. If I wanted to be political with an issue I would talk about the Economy.

    This is the substance of all of my contributions on this head:

    People should follow public health advice such as covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue, washing their hands frequently, and postponing travel if sick.

    Those who travel and return sick should seek medical advice.

  3. livinginbarbados Avatar
    livinginbarbados

    @Late to Reply

    I too arrived at Grantley Adams (on LIAT) last evening, but saw no health officials. Other arrivals earlier in the day (on American) did see officials. Maybe you can help us and indicate if LIAT=local=no perceived problems or no need to check, while American=foreign=perceived problems or a need to reassure.

    Either way, not one official at the airport checked recent travel or wore protective equipment.

    Diseases and viruses are not day workers, so one hopes that if there is a serious effort that it is constant.

  4. Late to REPLY Avatar
    Late to REPLY

    Livinginbarbados no person including the pilot can disembark an aircraft or a vessel without the permission of an port health officer,so next time travelling look around closely. There is no need to wear protected gear at this time but i am sure the front line officers at the ports have their gear. BUT for DARK KNIGHT i will keep getting to you the stealing and the pilferage is over you boast of your intellect get a honest job and stop weeping look around most sucessful Barbadians was’t UWIgraduates like you , but you have to kiss their asses for a living so get with it.

  5. livinginbarbados Avatar
    livinginbarbados

    @ Late to Reply
    We are not discussing ‘permission’, which is an administrative process, but health checks, which is not something that can be done by eye or feel. Where countries are really concerned about the spread of diseases, no person who does not pass the medical check can enter/cross border (see yellow fever areas, for example; no vaccine, no entry; see EU restrictions for foot and mouth disease). If no screening has been done of travellers then no assurance that a person(s) is not a carrier can be done.

  6. livinginbarbados Avatar
    livinginbarbados

    @Late to Reply
    “There is no need to wear protected gear at this time but i am sure the front line officers at the ports have their gear.”

    On that basis, I suggest they try having bullet proof vests and leaving them in the office draw or at home when the bullets start flying. The protective gear has a purpose, which is negated if it’s not used.

  7. Dark Knight Avatar
    Dark Knight

    @ Late to REPLY

    Given his legacy on education, both Mr. Barrow and uncle Cammie would consider you an embarrassment.

  8. Late to REPLY Avatar
    Late to REPLY

    @ Livinginbarbados this is a virus of which there is no vacine aviable so far physical observation or passive surveillance would be recommended at this stage . There is no need for front line officals to going about their duties in full protective equipment. It is important to note that diseases have courses (1) An infectionous organism muuts be present H1N1 (2)Host (3)Agent these three are exsisting agree. But disease dot spead just that simple your population would have to be sutseptable and the organism will have tobe highly virulent all beings have some type of immune system at work.This is a new combination of viruses but new labortary test at CDC stated tha the disease is not as highly infectionous as first thaugh an is currently weakening, the figures now presented by WHO are the results of early suspected cases. Now to@ Dark KNIGHT you boast of your education i am a college and UWIgraduate never beg no one in this country for employment and i am a succesful business person and a millionaire dont care who goverment in power put that in your shallow head.

  9. livinginbarbados Avatar
    livinginbarbados

    @Late to Reply
    You are absolutely correct that there is no vaccine for swine flu, though the anti-viral drugs, including Tamiflu and Relenza, are supposed to make the symptoms milder. But given that influenza spreads between humans through coughing or sneezing and people touching something with the virus on it and then touching their own nose or mouth you need to know who may be infected. That’s the simple point. If you do not take care to avoid the spread (including by not using protective equipement) then if it is highly infectious then you just multiply your problems.

  10. The Scout Avatar
    The Scout

    livinginbarbados
    Don’t panic, walking around in protective equipment would only be a new style. You put on a mask and then you remove it to eat, answer your cell phone or any other thing and you are still exposing yourself to the virus. The best bet is to follow the old time form of washing your hands regularly and also clean ALL those places that are usually touched. There is a special way to wash your hands and also you should use liquid soap and dry with a napkin. Tamiflu is the last resort to be used, the side effects are numerous and very bad, only patience who are seriously ill, should use it. This drug is so danderous that it should not be sold over thecounter, plus anyone who has bought it, should not use it unless prescribed by a medical doctor

  11. livinginbarbados Avatar
    livinginbarbados

    @The Scout

    Frankly, I’m with you in many respects, including on Tamiflu and its side effects. But to my peculiar (economist) mind, if you are going to spend scarce resources (money and time) then make use of what you buy and the time you use. So, let’s give sensible advice to the general public (as you did) and take reasonable precautions, and let’s not fool ourselves with PR suggesting that anything else will work for the moment.

  12. zmoneyent Avatar
    zmoneyent

    heard its in barbados now

  13. David Avatar
    David

    A crusie ship in the Port is reported to have 3 suspected cases.

  14. MistahZee Avatar
    MistahZee

    this is zmoneyent

    do you have a link to the actual story cause I heard it on the radio?

  15. Tourism Monkey Avatar
    Tourism Monkey

    And everyone, except those showing outward symptoms (of course) was allowed to leave the ship!

    What did I tell you?

  16. JC Avatar
    JC

    I hearing some rumours that the workerw at a specific Hotel because of this swine flu. Anybody hear anything? What are they talking about?

  17. JC Avatar
    JC

    Sorry about the unfinished sentence it should read:

    I hearing some rumours that the workers at a specific Hotel because of this swine flu have gone home. Anybody hear anything? What are they talking about?

  18. David Avatar
    David

    Did it make sense for Stetson ‘the Tuesday edition” Babb to rush to the public with a news flash that there was a swine flu alert at the port this morning? Would it not have been better to work with the medical authorities to manage how this news was disseminated given the untold damage in can potentially do to Barbados tourism industry?

  19. Avatar
    Anonymous

    David

    You mean the ‘chewsday edition’.

    VOB thrives on sensationalism.

    Right now they are doing anything to get the public’s attention.

  20. Chuckles Avatar
    Chuckles

    It is two weeks since there has been a posting on this pandemic which is worsening by the hour. Saw the following article on the NET and decided to share it with the family.

    Carnival Passengers, Crew Catch Swine Flu on Pacific Cruise
    By Jason Gale

    May 29 (Bloomberg) — Carnival Corp.’s luxury cruise ship Pacific Dawn was asked not to stop at ports in north Queensland after 38 people caught swine flu while on a South Pacific voyage, Australian health officials said.

    Passengers and crew tested positive for the H1N1 virus after nine days at sea on the 11-deck vessel. Most patients had a “mild illness” and were diagnosed after the ship docked in Sydney on May 25. Pacific Dawn will now reach Brisbane, Quensland’s capital, tomorrow after three new cases were reported, the state’s health department said yesterday.

    “All passengers will be screened before disembarking and any passengers with symptoms will be swabbed and provided with masks and a course of Tamiflu,” Jeanette Young, Queensland’s chief health officer, said in a statement, referring to Roche Holding AG’s anti-flu medicine.

    Australia’s health ministry said cases among people on board the ship have been found in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Sydney, contributing to a more than twofold increase in the nation’s swine flu case tally to 147 in 12 hours. Southeastern Victoria state said 43 additional cases were confirmed late yesterday, bringing its total to 96.

    Miami-based Carnival’s Australian unit was asked to alter the itinerary of the Renzo Piano-designed Pacific Dawn to avoiding docking at Cairns and Port Douglas after three crew members were diagnosed with the virus, Queensland Health said. The plan is aimed at minimizing the risk of the virus spreading through Queensland’s major tourist centers, the department said.

    Casino, Jogging Track

    The 795-cabin cruise ship, which boasts a casino, jogging track and five restaurants, is scheduled to arrive with about 1,900 passengers in Sydney on June 1, the health department said.

    It was forced yesterday to stop off Queensland’s Airlie Beach to discharge a child suffering a “serious” arm injury, Queensland Health said in a separate statement yesterday. The family will be kept in isolation for up to a week after the child is treated because they may have been in contact with infected passengers, it said.

    The pig-derived virus is the main flu strain currently circulating in Australia, which is approaching the winter influenza season, said Ian Barr, deputy director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Influenza in Melbourne, one of four laboratories globally that provides the WHO with data on flu cases and advises which strains to include in vaccines.

    “They are picking it up in isolated cases in the community,” Barr said by phone. “Whether it’s truly community- wide is probably a bit too early to say.”

    Pandemic Threat

    Most of those infected in Australia have been linked to international travel or relatives of other confirmed cases, Barr said. The WHO said swine flu would touch off the first influenza pandemic in 41 years if it causes epidemics outside North America similar to the ones identified in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada about six weeks ago.

    Forty-eight countries have officially reported 13,398 cases, including 95 deaths, the Geneva-based WHO said May 27. The tally excludes 1,163 additional cases in the U.S., 459 in Mexico, 197 in Canada, 147 in Australia, 79 in Chile, 37 in Argentina, 26 in Spain, 12 in South Korea, 8 in the Philippines, 3 in Singapore, 2 in Italy, as well as initial infections in Bolivia, Romania, Slovakia and Uruguay that were announced subsequently.

    Global cases have more than doubled in the past two weeks as the pig-derived virus became established in Western Europe, Japan, South America and Australia. Japan, with the most infections outside of North America, said 360 people have caught the bug, mostly students in the prefectures of Osaka and Hyogo.

    ‘Ideal Breeding Grounds’

    “There isn’t much difference between a high school in Osaka and a luxury cruise liner in the South Pacific — they are both ideal breeding grounds for this virus,” said Peter Cordingley, a Manila-based spokesman for the WHO’s Western Pacific region.

    The infections onboard the Pacific Dawn may have stemmed from a 5-year-old boy who developed symptoms two days after starting the voyage to New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands and Vanuatu, said Anthony Fisk, a spokesman for Carnival Australia. The boy was diagnosed with the new strain, which was subsequently found in three people who had direct contact with him, Fisk said.

    South Australia’s health department announced one case in a Pacific Dawn passenger on May 27 and said it was testing 17 more who disembarked in Sydney. Among the 24 cases in New South Wales from the cruise ship, the average age of those infected is 25 years and ranges from 1 to 53 years, said Kerry Chant, the state’s chief health officer.

    Risk-Reduction Measures

    Under new protocol for arriving cruise ships, the New South Wales government will treat flu-like symptoms on such vessels as swine flu, pending tests to clear any infected people, state Health Minister John Della Bosca said in a May 27 statement.

    Carnival said in a statement it is introducing measures to reduce risks, including screening passengers for flu before boarding and asking people with flu-like symptoms to report immediately to the ship’s medical center, where passengers will receive free treatment.

    The company said May 18 that changing cruise itineraries because of a U.S. government recommendation against non- essential travel to Mexico, due to swine flu, may hurt earnings by 5 cents a share, the majority of which will be taken in the fiscal second quarter.

  21. Chuckles Avatar
    Chuckles

    I hope that Barbadians aren’t letting their guards down. There are two confirmed cases in Jamaica . I would like the BU family to read the following article copied from yesterday’s edition of the Jamaica Observer. We in Barbados should have
    H1N1 Virus preparedness ads on radio/tv and in the print media similar to hurricane season ads.

    The article reads quote

    DR SUGGESTS EXTENSIVE SCREENING TO AVOID SWINE FLU SCARE

    BY KIMONE THOMPSON, Observer senior reporter thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com
    Monday, June 01, 2009

    FORMER president of the Medical Association of Jamaica, Dr Alverston Bailey, is warning that there could be a major public health scare if extensive screening of all the persons with whom the two persons confirmed to have the H1N1 influenza A virus have come in contact is not undertaken in a timely manner. Bailey, who practises general medicine in Kingston, was referring to the two cases of the flu reported on the weekend. Both cases, the Ministry of Health said, were detected after the persons travelled separately to New York, one of the cities in North America where the virus has been wreaking havoc in recent weeks.
    “There’s a distinct possibility that all the persons in the transportation, be it plane, ship or minibus, would have been exposed to it and not only their immediate relatives,” said Dr Bailey. “That’s where the problem is and it’s slightly worrying.”
    “The public health people are going to have a big problem on their hands because they will have to track the targets from the time they boarded the plane until when they were diagnosed. They have to track the flight they were on, the mode of transportation they took to get home, whether it was a minibus, if they were at the bus stop. They have to find all the people with whom they came in contact and they will need to call them in to be tested.”
    Added Bailey: “If I were in government I’d say “all the persons who were on flight X please come in for testing”. They may not do it because they have to be political, but from a public health standpoint I would.” Chief medical officer at the University Hospital of the West Indies, Dr Trevor McCartney, had similar concerns.
    “I don’t have the facts and I am not privy to the information but it appears that the virus has been here. The detection was made after samples were taken and had to have been taken some time ago. From what I have seen, I don’t get the impression that the persons came today,” he said, suggesting that the virus could have already spread.
    He did say, however, that in the case of an outbreak, the major hospitals had sufficient supplies of antiviral drugs.
    Yesterday, the Ministry of Health cancelled the second of two press conferences on the subject and when contacted, spokesperson on the H1N1, Dr Marion Bullock Ducasse, declined to comment. Members of the surveillance team were reportedly locked in a meeting up to late evening.
    The Observer could not ascertain the sex or age of the affected persons yesterday but we did find out that they were tested at the National Influenza Centre (NIC) at the University Hospital of the West Indies.
    The centre works in collaboration with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States and with the Pan American Health Organisation and is accredited to test for seasonal flu as well as the H5N1 (avian) and the H1N1 (swine) types.
    NIC Director Dr Sandra Jackson told the Observer that once the four tests to detect swine flu were done and the virus confirmed, the public was informed within 24 hours, and while she did admit that “there might be more cases”, she stressed that proper hygiene should go a far way in preventing illness.
    “It’s not as severe as people may fear that it may be because it was contracted in the States and it isn’t as bad there as in some other places,” she said.
    Dr McCartney, meanwhile, emphasised the need for heightened public awareness in the face of the two confirmed cases.
    We really need to step up surveillance. We need to step up the public’s awareness of the virus being in their environment by using radio and television ads, putting signs in schools and other public spaces. We need to let people know that it spreads very rapidly by contact so hand washing is of prime importance,” he said, adding that “wherever there is the suggestion of flu-like symptoms persons are encouraged to seek medical attention”.
    “Hospital workers have been instructed as to the protective measures they are to take to ensure that they don’t come in contact with the virus and signs have been posted in the hospitals,” he said.
    As for Dr Bailey’s position on protective measures, he said the public should adopt “universal precaution”.
    “I’m hoping that the Government puts all systems in place to ensure that all the target cases are properly quarantined…but my approach is the same as it would be for HIV, universal precaution and the health care professionals and the public should do it too. Avoid shaking hands, avoid crowded places, use personal protective equipment – respirators that effectively filter out virus, goggles to protect the eyes, and gloves – and view all situations as potential cases.
    “Wash hands continuously, especially if you go out and if you’re sick, don’t go to school or work,” Dr Bailey advised.’
    Ends Quote

  22. ROK Avatar
    ROK

    It is time this foolishness stops. It seems so obvious that this swine flu was developed in a lab and spread by couriers to different parts of the world as a ploy to sell drugs and make money. The market was either slow or not vibrant enough.

    but if you think that was enough, you now have some more surprises. A new H1N1 vaccine, lol! Pull your pockets some more…

    but the most marvellous thing about this is that when we done buy-up and stockpile, the drugs, test kits etc. are not returnable and non refundable and I bet they have an expiry date. After all the stockpiling, we now have to stockpile the new vaccinations.

    I see one commenter writing that Jerome Walcott stockpile a vaccination. What you really telling me is that the plot was on the cards for a long time and that the then Minister of Health knew?

    If this is so, then I have no apologies whatsoever for my conspiracy theory and I am linking it back to HIV/AIDS because that came about with a similar MO to swine flu.

  23. Lisa85856 Avatar
    Lisa85856

    Interesting stuff. Did you hear that there’s a new strain which is resistant to the anti-flu drugs? Tamiflu etc? Found a really good website for tracking it’s progress, seems to be updated every hour or so… http://www.swinefludeaths.co.uk.

  24. Avatar
    Anonymous

    i here saying the same thing barbados doesnt seem to be taking no precautions to get rid of this swine flu because every day people from england and surrounding areas are still coming into barbados and are among our people and england for example there are over 6300 cases of swine flu and 29 people at this moment have died already and we just taking them in barbados and not taking precautions what is wrong with bajans we want to dead for a pound

  25. Mr Motaung TJ Avatar
    Mr Motaung TJ

    Since we all know that our country, Suoth Africa will be hosting the most important event of soccer World Cup for the very first time. i would like to know what interventions are bieng made to ensure that the pandemic influenza of Swine flu does not spread through our loving country, what should the municipalities do to ensure that the virus is well managed so it does not contaminate our country anymore, especially those minicipalities that will be hosting the games in them so that people won’t have fear to go to the stadiums?

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