Swine flu pandemic in Belgium
There are confirmed cases of swine flu in Belgium. Up to date information on the number of cases and the pandemic policy in Belgium can be found on the official Belgian website on influenza
There are no measures of screening or quarantining at airports in place for the moment.
On 14 July, the Belgian authorities, after extensive consultation between the federal and regional levels of government, decided to move from the containment to the mitigation stage. The objective of this stage is to mitigate the pandemic rather than to contain it.
What does this mean:
- Treatment of people with symptoms: patients will no longer be systematically tested for swine flu but will be treated for their symptoms case by case with usual flu medication
- Vigilance for people in risk groups: people belonging to risk groups will be monitored closely. They will be the only ones that will be treated with antivirals
- A system of epidemiologic surveillance will be put in place: some 200 selected GPs will monitor the spreading of the flu among their patients and these data will be extrapolated to the whole of the population
The distribution of antivirals and facemasks will be co-ordinated by the Ministry for Internal Affairs who will liaise with the provinces and local authorities. A local network will distribute masks and antivirals to GPs so that the stocks are as close to the population as possible