July 13, 2009
A woman who came into contact with a member of a dance ensemble from Jelgava that recently traveled to Mexico is the second confirmed case of the H1N1 flu reported in Latvia, the Public Health Agency in Rīga has announced.
The woman herself had not traveled outside Latvia, the agency reported in a July 10 press release. However, the dance ensemble from the Junda Chidren’s and Youth Center was in Mexico from June 12 to July 7.
The woman felt ill on July 9 and went to the Jelgava hospital. A day later the Infectology Center of Latvia’s laboratory confirmed that she had contracted the H1N1 virus.
The Public Health Agency is asking members of the Junda dance ensemble and persons who may have come in contact with them to telephone the agency’s epidemiologist at +371 29444890. Symptoms of H1N1 are flu-like and include fever, cough, headache, muscle and joint pain, sore throat and runny nose.
Latvia’s first case of H1N1 was confirmed on June 23 and involved a woman who had traveled to the United States and Canada.
The United States, Mexico and Canada are the top three countries in terms of the number of H1N1 flu infections, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared the worldwide spread of the virus a pandemic.
As of July 6, according to WHO data, Estonia has reported 13 cases of infection, while Lithuania has had three.
Andris Straumanis is editor of Latvians Online.
