Swine flu infects hundreds in SA

MORE than 500 South Africans have tested positive for the influenza A(H1N1) strain - commonly known as swine flu - in the past seven months.

But the National Institute for Communicable Diseases says there is no cause for panic, because a vaccine is available to treat the virus.

Statistics from the institute revealed that, since January, 1141 patients had been tested and 516 were found to have the virus.

Dr Cheryl Cohen, who heads the institute's Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis, said H1N1 was now part of the normal seasonal flu cycle. The virus sub-type was the most common cause of flu in humans in 2009.

Cohen said the institute closely monitored the influenza season in South Africa each year.

"We look at the severe cases in hospital and the mild ones in the community. We track the progress of the season.

"This year looks like an average year. From the data there is nothing to suggest that it's a worse year than any other year. During influenza season, there will always be some cases of pneumonia and the occasional person who dies of influenza."

Cohen said people who died from flu usually had an underlying illness.

"It can happen that a healthy young person dies of influenza and every year there may be one or two cases like that, but the vast majority who may die of influenza will have an underlying illness like heart or lung disease, or [be] old or pregnant."

She added that the institute had sampled only a few clinics and hospitals.

"There certainly would be more [H1N1 cases]. Most people who have influenza would not be tested. We test only a minority of cases," said Cohen.

"The H1N1 flu is part of the normal seasonal flu. It is unlike when there was an outbreak in 2009," she said.

In Gauteng 235 patients tested positive for H1N1, in the Western Cape the figure was 97 and in KwaZulu-Natal it was 76.

This year, 53 travellers have been tested for influenza on arrival in South Africa from abroad, 29 of whom were positive.

In May this year, 17 people died during an H1N1 outbreak in Venezuela.