KINGSTON, Jamaica — Training for new Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) recruits has been scaled back until December 25, after 80 recruits started manifesting flu-like symptoms last week.

The Ministry of Health on Tuesday told OBSERVER ONLINE that physical training has been scaled back to facilitate the identification of those recruits who might have been infected, but are not yet showing symptoms, for isolation. The ministry said this period will also be used to allow ill recruits to recover.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Winston De La Haye told OBSERVER ONLINE that of the 80 recruits that have been affected, “there are six persons who are more severely affected than the others”, while “one, in particular, is severely ill, but is stabilised in the intensive care unit at the University Hospital (of the West Indies)”.

Dr De La Haye disclosed that based on epidemiology, the virus seemed to have made its way into the the army’s training depot at Newcastle in St Andrew, when recruits were coming in to the location.

He said that some 250 people were recently recruited in two batches — the first batch consisted of 170 recruits while the second consisted of 80.

The chief medical officer said that the virus started manifesting itself after the second batch arrived at the training depot.

However, he happily reported Tuesday afternoon that, within the last 24 hours, there had not been any further reports of anyone showing flu-like symptoms.

“That’s good news,” Dr De La Haye said. “In addition, we have toned down on the rigorous, physical activities… and they are only engaging in classroom activities.”

He also reported that about half of those who turned up at the medical centre with the symptoms have improved significantly, and that the ministry is doing all it can to identify the illness.

“Thus far they have not isolated any H1N1 or any other influenza-type virus,” he said. “What we are seeing is a bit of flu-like symptoms that you would see around this time of the year, spread among some vulnerable groups, in terms of persons exposed to rigorous, physical activity in the training process.”

He said that this explained the rapid spread of the virus among the recruits, adding that they also live in close proximity to each other so there is increased contact.

Shanica Blair