Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy yesterday said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the shipment of H1N1 flu vaccine is now expected in Guyana early next month.

“We will continue to monitor all cases of influenza-like illnesses and our surveillance system is doing meticulous work to ensure early detection of any possible H1N1 infection in the country. Wherever we suspect H1N1 we will send specimens for testing.

“We will also test at our New Public Health Lab,” the minister said in a statement yesterday.

He urged the public to continue to practice good hygiene and for health workers to be on the alert to keep the transmission of the virus at a low level.

Guyana is expecting to receive some 240,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine, which was initially set to arrive in November. The arrival date was later pushed back to this month.

To date, some 26 cases of H1N1 have been confirmed in the country and Minister Ramsammy has said the country is still in a phase of low level transmission.

He said testing is ongoing at the Caribbean Epidemio-logy Centre (CAREC), given that Guyana is going through a verification process before testing can be done here.

Ramsammy said testing here will begin in 2010 since Guyana has acquired the equipment to do testing for the H1N1 virus, but he gave no specific timeframe. He said also that Belize has made a request for assistance in H1N1 testing when it is introduced in Guyana and that the sector intends to accommodate this request.