South Africa on "high alert" for swine flu

South Africa has mobilized health teams across the country after two suspected cases of swine flu were detected, Health Minister Barbara Hogan said Thursday (April 30).

"We have no confirmed case, but we are on high alert. With the mobility of some people in our country, we'll be monitoring the situation to see if we do have an outbreak here," she said on public radio.

Her ministry on Wednesday said that two possible cases of the disease had been detected - the first anywhere in Africa - in two women who had recently returned from Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak.

"We have been responding for some time to diseases that are communicable or infectious, like the epidemic of cholera. So we have, for a long time now, had national outbreak response teams and provincial outbreak response teams, that are there to be immediately alerted if danger exists," Hogan said.

"We have activated all these response teams over the weekend. They are now engaging with all health care professionals in public and private sectors, giving guidelines around diagnosis [and] treatment."

She urged South Africans not to panic, but said anyone with concerns should contact a health official.

Hogan emphasized that the disease is rarely fatal and said that the country had enough stocks of Tamiflu, the drug used to treat swine flu.  

The World Health Organization has declared a pandemic is "imminent," ratcheting up its alarm level over the flu and its detection in 11 countries outside of Mexico.