(posted March 4, 2:30 p.m.)- First lady and government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo today announced a nationwide health alert for the H1N1 and H3N2 influenza strains following the detection of nearly two dozen new cases of the viruses in Managua, Estelí and Chontales.
“Since July 2012 there had not been any reported cases of H1N1, but during the past two months and one week there have been 21 cases of the influenza,” Murillo told her family media outlets today at noon.
Of the 21 confirmed cases, 13 are infected with H3N2 and eight have been diagnosed with H1N1, she said.
Murillo said health authorities will remain vigilant and work with the community to identify suspected cases. She said the “model of family and community…of health from the family and the community” will help the government to “conduct inquiries and detect suspicious cases” and control the situation from spreading.
“We have this emergency, this sanitation alert; there is a lot of wind, compañeros, all this makes the spread of respiratory illnesses spread even faster, skin illnesses,” Murillo said. “And already with this threat of H1N1, we need to take very seriously the measures decreed by health authorities, the Ministry of Health, health workers and apply our model of health from the family and the community. From the Councils of Family, the Mayors of Power of the Family, support the Ministry of Health. All of us together can impede this epidemic from having serious consequences, serious for our population.”
The irony is palpable. And while some of it is your own, all you have to do is quote her to get a huge dose. Maybe it’s the journalists who are making her so popular? Gotta admit she’s good copy.