MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina confirms 55 deaths from the A/H1N1 virus flu

The overall public opinion feeling is that flu is out of control in Argentina.

Argentina’s minister of Health Juan Manzur confirmed on Saturday that the number of deaths from the A/H1N1 virus influenza had reached 55, although non government organizations insist the number is higher.

“According to reports from the Malbrán Institute (where suspicious cases are taken for lab tests) it has been confirmed that the number of deaths has risen to 55” said Manzur in a television interview.

Mr. Manzur was named Minister last Wednesday following the resignation of his predecessor Graciela Ocaña, who it was known was wanting to leave the job following repeated misunderstandings with the administration of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner regarding how to address the pandemic which seems to be expanding at great speed in Argentina.

Manzur also admitted that the number of contagions with the virus A/H1N1 could be in the range of 100.000. The announcement comes a week after the Ministry officially reported, (before last Sunday’s mid term elections) that the number of confirmed cases in Argentina were 1.587.

But Manzur denied emphatically that the government had manipulated the number of cases, because of the Sunday elections, as is claimed by NGO and members of the Congressional opposition.

Nevertheless the fact he mentioned 100.000 cases caused a first clash with President Cristina Kirchner who called for “responsibility” and “prudence” in the release of figures and percentages.

Of this number of alleged contagions, 2.800 have been confirmed to have the A/H1N1 virus said Manzur.

“President Cristina Kirchner only asked for precision when dealing with numbers and to explain precisely what we mean with them” added Manzur.

According to Buenos Aires press reports former minister Ocaña had repeatedly suggested that a “sanitary emergency” be declared and went as far as proposing suspending last Sunday’s election to avoid the agglomeration of people.

Ariel Umpierrez head of the Doctors without colours, claimed that the Argentine government “undoubtedly hid and manipulated the number of cases as well as the number of deaths”. He added that Ms Ocaña should have resigned then and not have waited for the election results.

This week the Pan American health organization, OPS, also regretted that mid term elections had coincided with the outbreak of the A/H1N1 virus flu.

Argentina now stands only behind United States (170) and Mexico (119) regarding the number of flu deaths. Most of reported deaths in Argentina are concentrated in the capital Buenos Aires and the metropolitan area of the Buenos Aires province.

Several Argentine provinces have declared “sanitary emergencies”, and the federal government has ordered the closing down for a month of schools and universities.