TALLINN — Despite Monday’s swine flu death in Estonia, the country’s social affairs ministry has not declared any region of the country to be an epidemic zone because the rate of infection remains low.
“Epidemic will be called out … when there are more than 70 infected per 100,000 citizens,” Ivi Normet, health vice chancellor of the Ministry of Social Affairs told Baltic Reports.
However, the ministry’s announcement has not stopped parents from pulling their children out of school in fear of swine flu. Already 11,000 children are missing school Wednesday in Tallinn due to the new flu.
Meanwhile the Vanalinna Harduskollegium in Tallinn and Viimsi Secondary School have closed today due to the large amount of absences.
Normet said that the ministry has issued activity guides, for childcare and educational institutions, employers, health care professionals and the public in order to avoid an influenza epidemic. The guides are developed by specialists of infectious diseases.
Estonia has still not received the swine flu vaccine, but Normet promised that the negotiations with the suppliers are coming soon to an end and the contracts will be signed within this week, and the vaccine should be available by the second week in December.
Swine flu victim was previously healthy
The name of the 13-year old boy that died early Monday morning, a student at Raasiku Secondary School in Tallinn, has not been publicly released. The ministry confirmed the boy died of bilateral pneumonia caused by a complication of swine flu.
Mall-Ann Riikjärv, chairman of the board of Harjumaa Children’s Hospital, said the child didn’t suffer under any other illness which could have affected the course of illness.
“The child was infected with the new virus, but the course of the illness was exclusively rapid and difficult, which happens very rarely in case of influenza,“ Riikjärv told Baltic Reports.
According to Riikjärv, the boy first got a very high fever, after started coughing and then developed a pneumonia. Raasiku Secondary School is in grief and the situation is hard for the students and teachers, and according to Kadri Viira, the school’s deputy director, the parents are keeping their children at home in fear. Whether Raasiku Secondary School will be closed down or not will be on decided Wednesday.
“A parent’s meeting is going to take place Wednesday, where a Health Protection Inspectorate representative shall notify the parents about the current situation and discuss whether the school should be closed,” Viira told Baltic Reports.
According to the Health Protection Inspectorate, 290 swine flu infections have been registered so far and 1,100 tests have been carried out as of Tuesday. The inspectorate warns that the cycle of high level of infection will last for another couple of weeks, but should subside in December. The first swine flu case in Estonia was registered on May 29.
