Gorgas leads in pandemic fight

PANAMA. Panama’s Gorgas Institute, named after the man who battled malaria and saved thousands of lives during the building of the Canal, will become the epidemiological center for Central America in the event of a full blown swine flu pandemic.

All the countries in the region will be able to send samples from suspected cases of swine flu to Panama to be analyzed, said the Gorgas Institute director, Dr Nestor Sosa said.

Currently the institute only runs tests to find out if the person has an A type flu. If the patient has that kind of infection, together with non-typical characteristics, and has other risks factors like coming from Mexico, the sample is sent to the Center for Disease Control CDC in Atlanta, United States.

“The problem with the swine virus is that because it is completely unknown, a test will have to be created to detect it. The World Health Organization commissioned the CDC to design the laboratory exam and distribute it in Latin America,” explained the director.

Sosa said that the CDC is going to distribute swine flu tests sometime next week to the different countries and the Gorgas Institute will have the capability to detect the swine flu virus in suspected cases in 24 hours.

The director did not said how many suspected cases of swine flu the Gorgas has tested, however he admitted that the exam numbers have increased from seven a week to 20, which is very uncommon.

Talking about the WHO raising the pandemic flu to level five, Sosa said that we are very close to a pandemic being declared and it would be the first one since 1968.

“The WHO could order closure of airports, restrict the movement of the population and stop concentrations of people,” said the director.

Sosa added that the Ministry of Health has done a good job making the population aware of the swine flu symptoms and the best ways to control the spread of the disease. “The best way to slowdown a pandemic is through education.”

He pointed out that a swine flu vaccination could probably be ready in six months and in the meantime something must be done to protect the population, such as the recom mendations given by the Ministry of Health.

Sosa said that it is too early to recommend the use of masks, because no cases of swine flu has been reported in Panama and recommending masks would alarm the population unnecessarily.

The doctor said antiviral drugs will only be given to patients who present early symptoms of swine flu and should be given during the first 48 hours of the diagnosis.

“We assume that antiviral drugs are going to work, but the reality is that we do not know, because no studies have been done with regards to the effectiveness of those medicines during a pandemic,” said Sosa.

“Panama has antiviral drugs, but we need to use them cautiously depending on the severity of each individual case, as we have a limited number,” said Sosa.

“The mortality rate of the swine flu is of around five per cent based on the Mexico’s cases and the pandemic of 1918 which was one of the worst had a mortality rate of 2.5 percent,” said the doctor.

The director said that Panama is very vulnerable to the pandemic, due to its geographical position and the amount of travellers that go through the isthmus everyday.

Doctor Sosa, who is an specialist in infectious diseases said that it is impossible to predict how the pandemic is going to progress. However he doubted that it is going to disappear like the SARS virus or it is going to spread as widely as the 1918 Spanish flu.

“I think we are going to have a moderate pandemic, with a few cases in each country,” said Sosa.

The director concluded by saying that Panama has spent the last two years preparing itself for a flu pandemic thanks to grant of $4 million given to Gorgas Institute by the United States. “We are prepared and we are also helping other countries.”

The government gave $5 million to fight the flu.