Although 50-year-old Vishnunarine “Shook” Sugrim was infected with the H1N1 virus, he did not die from the swine flu, according to his family.
Sugrim’s official cause of death has been listed as respiratory distress and septic shock, believed to be as a result of pneumonia, family members, who asked not to be named, told Stabroek News yesterday.
Sugrim who was the owner of the Agri Implements store in Georgetown, returned to Guyana last month after a business trip to China and was hospitalised after he began displaying flu like symptoms, including difficulty breathing.
On December 18, Chief Medical Officer Shamdeo Persaud told Stabroek News that the Ministry had been made aware of a possible case of H1N1 at a local hospital and was conducting tests on samples from the patient to confirm whether he had the disease.
The samples from Sugrim were first take to the National Reference Lab and then forwarded to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), which is the only laboratory in the Caribbean able to confirm the presence of the H1N1 virus.
Persaud later told reporters that on December 30 that CARPHA confirmed that he samples showed the presence of the virus.
This confirmation was received one day before Sugrim died at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he had been for about two weeks receiving treatment.
According to his family, the decision was taken to seek treatment overseas since doctors at Dr Balwant Singh’s Hospital, where he was being treated here, said that they “could do nothing else for him.”
“He wasn’t getting better and his lungs had shut down,” a relative, who asked not to be named, told Stabroek News.
His family noted believes that some of the complications faced by the businessman were caused by a “flu injection” administered to him by a local doctor, whom he had consulted.
“The injection wasn’t supposed to be given to someone with diabetes,” the relative said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Public Health Dr George Norton has said that his ministry has no immediate plans to begin an inoculation programme.
Speaking with reporters at the Public Buildings yesterday, Norton explained that “because of the adverse effects that vaccines can have, routine vaccination is not practiced. Influenza-type vaccines are not routinely given; only if there is crisis or epidemic then we will make the vaccines available.”
The minister was responding to questions about whether workers at the country’s port of entries would be offered the vaccine as a means of protecting those who are on the frontline when it comes to the disease.
Norton said that inoculation of the port workers and health workers will begin “as soon as we, in our clinical judgement, recognise such a need.” This judgement is to be informed by whether there are more manifestations of the disease.
He explained that the disease most frequently manifests in patients who have compromised immune systems and it further compromises the system, leaving them vulnerable to other illnesses.
“It is similar to a situation of a person suffering from HIV/AIDS, [who] may die of pneumonia and pneumonia is on his death certificate,” he said.
Norton continues to maintain that Guyana is prepared to manage the disease. He reiterated that a national task force, inclusive of specially-trained medical personnel as well as the port health officers, is ready to handle any situation which may develop.
“We have been manning our ports of entries, particularly our international airports, but much more so Moleson Creek, [the] Lethem Bridge crossing to Brazil and Charity. The possibility of persons crossing our porous borders still exists …and that we have no control over,” he said.
He also noted that the ministry is in possession of enough vaccines—specifically Tamiflu—to treat the population if it becomes necessary.
The H1N1 virus is a strain of influenza that the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a pandemic in 2009. By the beginning of 2010, the virus was responsible for approximately 17,000 deaths worldwide. Since that time, a vaccine has been approved for use, with research showing a single dose creates enough antibodies to protect against the virus within about 10 days.
The Trinidad Express reported on December 28 that neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago had seen four deaths and 41 reported cases of the swine flu last year.
After the number of confirmed cases reached 29, a public inoculation campaign began in the twin island republic. This campaign has faced several challenges, with the Express reporting that nurses had refused to take the vaccine and that several health centres in Trinidad had run out of it after large number of residents begin seeking vaccination.
This “shortage” in some areas has led to some “private doctors reportedly charging persons as much as TT$400,” an Express report said.
