The Health Minister Christos Patsalides has said that there is no cause to panic, with regard to the swine influenza, adding that since Saturday the Ministry has been in continuous contact with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), following the outbreak of the disease in Mexico and the US.
"We have already had two long teleconferences. Today we are expected to have new contact, an exchange of views and an evaluation of the situation and of all the measures that are being adopted on a national and European level”, he said in statements to the press here today.
Patsalides noted that the Ministry of Health has announced prevention measures which people who plan to travel to the affected areas should take.
He said the Ministry has also informed the Authorities of the Cyprus airports on how to inform the passengers traveling to the affected areas and that they should write down the passengers returning from the aforementioned areas.
The Minister finally said that "there is no reason for panic."
According to the ECDC the human swine influenza A(H1N1) is an acute viral infection of the respiratory tract in pigs caused by type A influenza virus. The mortality rate is low in pigs and recovery usually occurs within 7-10 days. Swine origin influenza viruses also occur in wild birds, poultry, horses and humans, but interspecies transmission is considered a rare event. So far three influenza type A virus subtypes: H1N1, H1N2 and H3N2 have been found in pigs.
Human infections with swine influenza have been detected occasionally since the late 1950s usually in persons with direct exposure to pigs (e.g. people working in pig farms, etc.). In Europe, since 1958 a total of 17 cases have been reported.
A link to pigs was presumed but never discovered. Instead there was extensive human to human transmission, with over 200 infections resulting in 12 hospitalisations and one death.
The ECDC says that most commonly, swine influenza is transmitted through direct contact or close proximity with pigs. This virus is not transmitted from eating pork or pork products.
