SWINE FLU is getting closer to home than previously thought and medical organisations are questioning Government’s ability to cope with a possible outbreak.

On Monday, a 39-year-old unidentified man was confirmed by the United States’ Centres for Disease Control (CDC) as Puerto Rico’s first case of swine flu after he returned from a cruise that passed through the Leeward Islands, according to a report issued by the Associated Press yesterday. This means that Puerto Rico and Cuba are the only two Caribbean islands with confirmed swine flu cases.

Up until press time however, the World Health Organisation (WHO) did not confirm if the Puerto Rican man officially had the virus. They instead maintain that only 46 countries have officially reported 12, 954 cases of influenza A H1N1 infection, including 92 deaths.

The Ministry of Health, on the other hand, has officially reported that 110 people have been tested for the influenza A H1N1 virus locally, but all tests came back negative.

Nevertheless, while the Ministry keeps its fingers crossed in hopes that the virus never gets here, medical lobby groups doubt the Ministry’s ability to successfully manage an H1N1 outbreak.

Secretary General of the Medical Professionals Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MPATT), Dr Balkaran Ramkissoon, said if one was to judge the Ministry’s performance during the dengue fiasco last year; it would be difficult to just take their word for it.

’In terms of facilities, and even surveillance, they are just not ready to effectively deal with an influx of patients if there is an outbreak,’ he insisted.

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association (TTMA), Dr Solaiman Juman, said the patient intake at the hospital was already so little because of the lack of space and staff.

He said if the Ministry did in fact have a plan to deal with a possible outbreak, they needed to clarify exactly where they were getting staff and where they were going to house any sick people if the hospitals cannot accommodate them.

’Right now all these hospitals are under some heavy stress because of poor staff and facilities, so if an outbreak did occur in this country, the hospitals will definitely be under added strain,’ he said.