ALL CLEAR: Tests rule out swine flu in Caribbean

Barbados, Belize, Grenada and St Lucia had all sent samples off to CAREC for preliminary testing. Specimens are sent off to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) if CAREC’s initial tests do not rule out the virus. (File photo)

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, May 4, 2009 – The Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) has reported that all the specimens sent by regional countries to be tested for swine flu – which is now being referred to as influenza A (H1N1) – have all tested negative for the virus.

“There have been no confirmed cases of influenza A (H1N1) in any CAREC member countries. Specimens are being received from possible suspected cases. Thus far all tests have been negative for influenza A (H1N1),” the Trinidad-based centre said on its website over the weekend.

Barbados, Belize, Grenada and St Lucia had all sent samples off to CAREC for preliminary testing. Specimens are sent off to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) if CAREC’s initial tests do not rule out the virus.

A few other Caribbean countries had quarantined persons who recently returned home from Mexico, where the virus was first identified, but those persons have also been cleared.

While the outbreak is said to have been slowing down in Mexico, cases have now been confirmed in more than half of the states in the United States.

Some 226 cases have been confirmed in 30 states so far, although most cases are reported to be mild.

So far, 985 cases of the virus had been officially reported across 20 countries – Mexico, the US, New Zealand, Canada, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, Israel, France, Italy, El Salvador, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, South Korea, Irish Republic, Costa Rica and Colombia.

The number of persons confirmed to have died from the virus so far has reached 26. Of those 25 were in Mexico where a total of 101 deaths are suspected, while the other one was reported in the US – a Mexican child.