Brazzaville, 15 May 2009 - African countries, with the support of WHO and other development partners, are continuously strengthening their general capacity to deal with cases of Influenza A/H1N1 virus if an outbreak occurs in the region.

All countries in the Region now have in place revised or updated contingency and emergency preparedness and response plans; all have also set up A/H1N1 emergency or crisis management committees or commissions or Task Forces, and all are enhancing surveillance to enable early detection, laboratory confirmation of cases and rapid response, according to reports received on Friday by the WHO Regional Office for Africa.

The reports, from Member States, indicate that as at 14 May, all countries in the Region had taken delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Also, more than one million doses of Tamiflu had been delivered to 42 out of the 46 Members States. The remaining four countries are expected to take delivery of 14,000 doses of Tamiflu by 17 May.

Shipments of the PPE and Tamiflu to countries were made by both the Africa Regional Office of WHO and WHO Headquarters. Some quantities of both items were also delivered to the WHO Inter Country Support Teams based in Harare, Libreville and Ouagadougou which have set up crisis management committees to support countries in their areas of coverage.

The A/H1N1 Crisis Management Team set up in April by the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, is in permanent contact with all 46 countries in the Region which now provide daily reports on the A/H1N1 situation to the Regional Office.

As at 18:00 GMT on 14 May, 7, 457 cases of A/H1N1 had been reported in 34 countries worldwide with 65 deaths: 60 in Mexico, three in USA, one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.

No A/H1N1 cases have so far been confirmed in Africa, although 25 suspected cases have been reported in nine countries. Twelve of these have tested negative, while the remaining are still being investigated