The Nation (Nairobi)
2 July 2009
Nairobi — Confusion reigned on Thursday after the Kenya Government insisted that the 33 UK students had tested negative for swine flu despite reports in the British press that eight of them were positive.
The director of public health, Dr Shanaaz Shariff, said tests on the 33 students showed they were negative. He said the Tamiflu drug was being used in treating them, adding that they were expected to leave Kenya for the UK on Saturday.
The students are being attended to by their own doctor at the hotel where they have been isolated. Dr Shariff said samples sent to the Kenya Medical Research Institute and National Influenza Centre in Nairobi had all tested negative for the H1N1 virus.
At the same time, a 21-year-old student who developed a fever after arrival from India tested negative for the virus at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
She presented herself to the hospital after she was advised to do so by health officials screening passengers at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
"Tests carried out on the patient reveal that she had seasonal influenza, which is common and is not severe or life threatening," the hospital spokesman Simeon Ithae said on Thursday.
The Independent on Thursday reported that the virus had since spread to eight other members of the group. It claimed Kenyan journalists were disguising themselves as doctors to gain entry into the hotel to interview the students. But by Thursday no media house in the country had carried such an interview.
The first case of swine flu in Uganda was confirmed on Thursday. A Briton who had travelled to the country via Nairobi tested positive.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
