BELGIUM: H1N1: NINTH AND TENTH CASES REPORTED;

UNCLAS BRUSSELS 000748 SIPDIS STATE FOR OES/IHB STATE PASS USTR JANE DOHERTY STATE PASS USAID STATE PASS HHS/NIH E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KFLU AEMR ASEC AMED CASC KFLO TBIO KSAF KPAO PREL PINR, AMGT, TF, BE SUBJECT: BELGIUM: H1N1: NINTH AND TENTH CASES REPORTED; ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLOSED AS PRECAUTION REF: BRUSSELS 728 ¶1. Belgian health authorities announced via a May 29 press release that two new cases of H1N1 had been confirmed in Belgium, bringing the country's total number of positive cases to ten. The ninth case involves a 10-year old boy from Tervuren, a town close to Brussels, who had returned on Sunday, May 24 with his family from a vacation in the United States; case 10 involves a 30-year old man from Brussels who came back to Belgium on May 28 from New York. The man is now in Brussels' Saint Pierre hospital for treatment, but the child, whose symptoms are mild according to a person at the Government's influenza hotline contacted by the Embassy on May 29, is receiving treatment at home with his family. The school which the 10-year attends (located in the village of Moorsel, a neighborhood or borough of Tervuran, has been closed until June 2 as a precaution, with families being asked to remain at thome to watch their children for symptoms. Health authorities are closely monitoring the situation. All students from the child's class as well as his teachers are taking antiviral medication as of the evening of May 28, and so far the families of 258 out of the 268 students at the school have been contacted by health authorities to be made aware of the situation, although they are not being treated with antivirals. The child had no symptoms when he returned from the United States, and attended school on May 25 and 26, falling ill with flu symptoms on May 27 and thus did not attend school that day or the next. The child's positive test result came back on the evening of May 28, prompting the authorities to act. ¶2. Regarding the tenth case, the man in question had had contact with only one person since his return; that person is receiving antivirals. BUSH