About 30 children from Mthatha high school were taken to hospital for check-ups on Tuesday morning after collapsing and complaining of severe headaches, the Eastern Cape Health Department said.
However there was no reason at this stage to believe that their symptoms were due to swine flu, spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said. “The report is also that they are very hysterical,” he said. There have previously been incidents of mass hysteria at schools in the Mthatha area.
Kupelo said the pupils, from Zingisa High School, were being examined at Mthatha general hospital. “Every possibility is being considered,” he said.
Kupelo said the total of confirmed swine flu cases in the province now stood at 35,17 of them in East London. On Wednesday the department will send out teams of health promoters and communicators to various parts of the province for a public awareness campaign on swine flu. They will distribute pamphlets at taxi ranks and other public places.
Kupelo said the department was concerned that people were still spreading “unfounded rumours” about the disease and its prevalence in the province. The swine flu situation in the Eastern Cape was “still manageable,” he said, and the department was not trying to cover up what was happening.
Most of the cases had been imported to the province. Most of the victims had been travelling either abroad or to other provinces. People with flu-like symptoms should seek medical advice, and parents whose children had flu should, after taking them to a medical practitioner or a health facility, keep them at home for seven days.
Issued by: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
11 August 2009
Source: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecdoh.gov.za/)
