IDB to give swine flu aid
Published:Wednesday | June 17, 2009 | 6:04 PM
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a US$5 million grant to help with the Influenza A H1N1 pandemic and other infectious diseases in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The IDB said Japan is providing $2 million through its Special Fund in coordination with the Pan American Health Organisation and the US Centres for Disease Control.
The programme includes the creation of a shared database of disease occurrence and patterns in Central America and neighbouring territories.
The programme will be set up to provide timely information that will enable national health authorities to take preventive action more effectively.
The World Health Organisation said 76 countries have officially reported 35 thousand 928 cases of the virus including 163 deaths.
The Bahamas, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are Caribbean countries listed by the UN health agency as having confirmed cases of the virus.