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Well, it's still a health issue and today the ministry of health received a grant from the World Bank Avian and Human Influenza Facility. The idea is to strengthen surveillance to detect and respond to a potential avian or human influenza outbreak. Epidemiologist, Dr. Jorge Polanco discussed the state of readiness at a handing over at the Rancho Restaurant near Belmopan today:

Dr. Jorge Polanco - Epidemiologist
"Surveillance means keeping an eye. And not only keeping an eye, because that was the convention historical definition. Surveillance now means keeping an eye and taking action to the issues that you find. And those issues, many of you would classify them, interpret them, or throw them out as complaints against problems. They're not complaints against problems; they're issues - they're gaps - that we have identified, that need to be address, and that we are addressing. If it would not be something that could be address, there would be no problem. But from the moment that you are picking it up, it reflects that you are aware of the gaps; you are aware of the challenges that exist - whether at the level of human resources, equipment, or something functional - that you want to be addressed. I've had multiple discussions with Dr. Andrewin and Mr. Emmanuel, and many times we've concluded that we could do much more by just improving the basics. They national response to H1N1 has seen improvement over the last 2 year by adjusting modifying the way we do things. The laptops that will be distributed are the exercise and pencils that we used to use in the late 60's. I don't know Dr. Peter Allen got to know something that we used to call slates. Remember the slates and the little pencil? Okay, that's out, now it's laptops. That's where we are; we have them, and we've been trained to use them."

The ministry received 60 laptop computers, office furniture, generators and three Hilux pickups.