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Major Basil Jarrett and Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton
The more than 80 Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) recruits who fell ill last week during training at the National Police Academy at Twickenham Park, St Catherine, are still in isolation.
Major Basil Jarrett, JDF Media Affairs Officer, says the main concern now is determining the source of the illness.
Major Jarrett says the isolation - about 500 yards away from where the general population is housed - is necessary based on the circumstances.
"We are treating it as a contagious illness, and we have taken the necessary precautions to keep those persons away from the general population," Major Jarrett explained on RJR's Beyond the Headlines, on Tuesday.
The JDF, the Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organisation, PAHO, are working together to determine the source of the illness which is believed to be caused by bacteria. One of the recruits remains in serious condition.
Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, also speaking on Beyond the Headlines, sought to assure the public that enough medication is available to treat the recruits, if they are indeed suffering from the effects of the H1N1 virus.
"We went out of our way this year to get more, much more than normal, I think probably three or four times the number of flu shots because of last year, and because we have taken a position to encourage all frontline health staff to get vaccinated," he said.
Accordingly, he said, there were enough to "not only treat with those frontline staff but with a fair percentage of the populace, once they are vulnerable and they think they require those shots."
Major Jarrett confirmed that all the recruits "who were not affected" have now been vaccinated while the JDF continues to collaborate with the Ministry of Health "to help determine what we're dealing with, in the first place."
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