Colombian President has Swine Flu
Posted on Aug 31, 2009 by Reena Daruwalla | Comments 0
According to reports just coming in, Alvrao Uribe, President of the Central American country of Colombia, has the H1N1 virus, Swine flu. Reportedly he has just returned from a Union of South American Nations summit on Friday and it is now announced that he has swine flu. This has led to urgent checks into the health of other South American leaders he met at a summit last week.
The president is currently being kept partly secluded and will work from home in his presidential palace in Bogotá in for the near future. He will continue working by telephone and internet.
This is a mild form of the virus he has contracted and is expected to make a full recovery according to officials. The 57-year-old showed symptoms such as sneezing and had a fever and aching muscles soon after addressing a summit at the Argentine ski resort of Bariloche on Friday. Until now, there have been no reports of the president’s travelling companions nor the other heads of state with whom he came into contact having reported any swine flu symptoms.
Just as a matter of interest the president could have passed on a lot of the virus to others sneezing in that way. Note he is using no tissue or napkin or kerchief! And doubtless he shook hands with a lot of other leaders soon thereafter? Alberto Cortez, an infectious disease specialist at Colombia’s National University, told the Associated Press Uribe could have infected other leaders. The presidents shook hands, spent hours around a table and mingled during the joint photo session.
Uribe is not the first Latin American leader to be infected. Earlier this month, Costa Rica’s president, Óscar Arias, was diagnosed and placed under quarantine at his home. The 69-year-old Nobel laureate, who helped end central America’s civil wars in the 80s, has recovered.
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