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19 Aug 2009

The Eastern Cape Health Department has repeated its calls for calm in the face of the swine flu outbreak in the province.

"We want to reiterate our call for people not to panic, because there's no reason for panic," Spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said on Tuesday. He was speaking in the wake of concerns raised by nurses at Port Elizabeth's Dora Nginza Hospital over the weekend death of a woman patient, and flu screening measures adopted by some schools in the province.

Kupelo said the woman was admitted to the hospital on Saturday and died three hours later. However, her death was due to factors other than the H1N1 flu virus, he said. There were still only 88 confirmed cases of swine flu in the province, and one death, of the woman from Jansenville.

Kupelo said some schools were reportedly forcing pupils to bring medical certificates confirming they were free of the flu. This was "not right", he said. The practice was not part of the guidelines distributed by the education department for dealing with infectious diseases.

Kupelo said the department appealed to doctors not to send off for laboratory tests on mild cases of flu, whether suspected H1N1 or not. However tests should always be done where people were HIV positive, pregnant, diabetic or had heart problems.

The department could not quarantine flu sufferers, but it did urge them to "contain themselves", and not mix with other people.

Issued by: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
19 August 2009
Source: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecdoh.gov.za/)

Issued by: Eastern Cape Provincial Government
19 Aug 2009

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