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The KwaZulu-Natal government on Monday began an awareness campaign to prevent major outbreaks of swineflu in the province's overcrowded prisons.
"We have decided to take these campaigns to prisons because we believe that we have been lucky that there have not been outbreaks of H1N1 in our prisons," health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said at Durban Westville Prison on Monday.
Westville Prison was prone to outbreaks if awareness campaigns were not conducted, he said.
In South Africa there had been 84 deaths due to the A(H1N1) virus since it was detected in Mexico in April, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. Worldwide over 4000 people had died, according to the World Health Organisation.
Addressing more than 300 inmates, Dhlomo said the department would continue with awareness campaigns, saying it was important as the disease was still new. "We want to reach as many people as we can so that we can protect them."
The department was also conducting campaigns at taxi ranks and shopping centres. - (Sapa, October 2009)
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