The number of infected people with the A/H1N1 flu in Chile has risen to 10, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday.
"The truth is that, as everybody knows in the country, the H1N1 flu virus landed in Chile ... There are 10 confirmed cases," Bachelet said after a meeting with organizations in charge of monitoring the sanitary emergency.
After a meeting with the National Commission of Response to Outbreaks and Sanitary Emergencies, Bachelet said that the preventive measures against the H1N1 flu are the same that the Chilean Health Ministry suggests to avoid the infection with common flu and breathing diseases in general.
"From the confirmed cases in Chile, till now all of them have been light and they are having a positive evolution," Bachelet said while calling for trust on the preventive and sanitary control measures in the country.
According to Bachelet, currently Chile is on a phase of small outbreaks among local people, but since "many of these people have had a normal life, we are sure the number of cases can rise."
All the reported cases are related to an infected student from San Nicolas de Myrna School in Las Condes, and most of them are students.
The outbreak at school made this and other schools suspend school activities for seven days as preventive measures.
Bachelet urged schools to avoid these kind of measures unless there are confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu virus among their students or unless the epidemiology experts say the contrary.
Bachelet added that in the middle of this sanitary alert "the best that schools can do is to help us on taking the preventive measures and not to take measures of panic."
Among the infected cases three of the patients arrived from Panama last week. All the 10 positive cases are receiving anti viral treatment and the cases "were light and they have a positive evolvement."
"This is a limited outbreak of cases," Bachelet said and she added that Chile "is not before a flu epidemic." However, she said that in the last 48 hours the virus has been faster to spread.
Bachelet said that since the alert for the H1N1 flu began in Chile, 34,156 people have been checked with thermic scanners at the international airport of Santiago.
Also to the moment there are 191 possible cases across the country, 131 of them were discarded, 38 were not related to the disease, 17 are waiting for the lab tests and 10 have been confirmed.
Bachelet added that positive cases could rise, because the infected people were in contact with other people before they were quarantined. However, she affirmed that the health system in Chile is ready to face this situation.
Bachelet said that the government "has acted with responsibility, with anticipation, with coordination, informing at all moment the people about the preventive measures to be taken."
Bachelet said that "since the World Health organization (WHO) sent the first alerts, Chile took all the necessary measures to reduce the human, social and economic impact of the disease."
(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2009)
