BARBADOS RECORDS FIRST H1N1 CASE

UNCLAS BRIDGETOWN 000329 SIPDIS HHS PLS PASS CDC STATE FOR WHA/CAR AND OES STATE PLS PASS AID E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO KFLU XL SUBJECT: BARBADOS RECORDS FIRST H1N1 CASE ¶1. (U) Barbados' acting health minister confirmed on June 3 the first recorded case of swine flu. The case was confirmed by the Caribbean Epidemiology Research Centre in Trinidad (CAREC). The Barbados public health office announced that a 19-year-old Barbadian man tested positive for the H1N1 strain, adding that his case is mild and he has been quarantined at home. Epidemiologists say the man had not recently travelled outside of Barbados. Press and public reaction has been muted, and the government remains confident that it has sufficient controls at ports of entry and sufficiently trained medical staff to mitigate and manage any H1N1 outbreak. Barbados has not requested USG assistance, and CAREC, which is now receiving several samples daily from throughout the CARICOM region for testing, believes they have enough staff to handle the workload. GOGGIN