(Trinidad Express) – A woman has tested positive for the H1N1 or “swine flu” virus, the Ministry of Health has said.
She is a national with a “very strong recent travel history to several countries having been affected by the virus”, the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.
A second test was expected to be done on the woman yesterday, after she was diagnosed positive for the virus.
“Because this might be the index case (first case) for Trinidad and Tobago, the Ministry of Health is repeating the test so that the results may be confirmed,” a ministry statement said.
“After developing flu-like symptoms, the patient was screened for Influenza A; the results of that first screening test came back negative.
The specific diagnostic for H1N1 was then administered and the results came back positive for this specific sub-type.”
The woman is said to be doing well and remains isolated and is under “continuous monitoring,“ the ministry said.
The ministry did not divulge any specific information about the woman, or at which hospital she is being kept. More information on her is expected to be given out today.
The ministry is also currently testing people who may have been in contact with the woman.
If confirmed, this country will be the fourth in the region to have cases of “swine flu”, following two cases in Jamaica and one each in the Bahamas and Bermuda.
To date, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported confirmed cases of “swine flu” in 66 countries with 19,273 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 117 deaths.
