By Neo Kolane
The ministries of health and agriculture are giving out conflicting information on the suspected outbreak of swine flu in the country, further adding to the mystery around the nature of the ailment that was reported to have afflicted several children in Maseru last week.
Swine influenza is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by Type A influenza viruses that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza in pigs. It can be transmitted from the animals to humans.
According to the reports, a number of children were diagnosed with swine flu after exhibiting symptoms of a flu that did not respond to regular treatment. This caused panic among people.
A ministry of health official told theReporter on Tuesday this week that tests conducted on two children on Wednesday last week came back (the following day) positive for the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu.
The official who did not want to be named for fear of losing her job, described the outbreak as a national emergency that needs to be addressed urgently.
“The person who needs to inform the nation is playing truant when Basotho’s lives are at stake. The high-ranking ministry official left the country on Thursday November 4 fully aware of the positive results. She does not want to face the nation to inform them about this emergency; instead she made up a story that the test results were not yet out.
“As a matter of fact, this issue is now at a stage where the Prime Minister should be involved due to its magnitude but the health boss is not willing to talk because it may have forced her to abandon plans to travel outside the country.
“Strangely enough, the ministry of agriculture knows nothing about this outbreak. Yet we are supposed to strategise together. The two children who tested positive had the procedure done by Dr Palesa Mohaleroe (local private medical practitioner).”
One of the parents whose children had symptoms of the unusual flu told this publication that he took his nine and five-year old daughter to Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital because they were ‘extremely feverish’.
“The doctor prescribed a painkiller, an antihistamine and multivitamins, but my girl did not get tested. I took to the hospital after I saw what I believed to be a ministry of health notice on social media announcing a swine flu outbreak.”
However, the ministry of health’s public relations officer ‘Mamolise Falatsa, distanced the ministry from the notice, insisting it was not issued by the ministry of health.
Meanwhile, the department of livestock’s director-general of veterinary services Dr Relebohile Mahloane this week said swine flu has never been detected in Lesotho.
“If that were the case, a national statement would have been made. I am shocked at all this swine flu talk. It remains a baseless suspicion until it is confirmed in a laboratory, even if we see symptoms similar to those of a disease we suspect.
“However, it does not mean we simply ignore or dismiss such rumours; we take every lead seriously but so far there has never been a report of swine flu or anyone human suspected to have it. As doctors we have a committee called One Health, and the other the doctors would have alerted me if they had seen signs of the flu in humans; such people should have been isolated. I suspect it is one of the strains of influenza that affects children.”
Attempts to get a comment from Dr Mohaleroe were fruitless as she said she could not talk as she was attending to patients. As a result, she could not confirm seeing any swine flu patients or where and how she conducted the tests.
