Swine flu reaches Caribbean

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the number of laboratory-confirmed swine flu cases has reached 5,251 in 30 countries around the world, with 61 people having died from the disease. (File photo)

HAVANA, Cuba, May 13, 2009 – The Caribbean is no longer swine flu free. Cuba has reported the region’s first confirmed case.

A statement from Cuba’s Ministry of Health said that a male Mexican student who is studying at a medical school in the Caribbean nation tested positive for the influenza H1N1 virus.

Neither the condition nor the identity of the student has been released.

But the ministry said that of 84 suspected cases that were tested, the student’s was the only one confirmed.

He was among others who started to return to Cuba from Mexico, the epicentre of the virus, in late April. Some were quarantined but the majority of them were released after being given a clean bill of health.

But former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has accused Mexico's government of keeping an outbreak of the flu secret during a recent visit to that country by United States President Barack Obama.

“The Mexican authorities did not inform the world of (the outbreak), awaiting the visit of Obama,” Castro said in an internet column. “We and dozens of other countries are paying for the broken dishes.”

But Mexico’s Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova has denied the allegation, saying that his country had been extremely forthcoming with information about the virus.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the number of laboratory-confirmed swine flu cases has reached 5,251 in 30 countries around the world, with 61 people having died from the disease.