DAR ES SALAAM, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Positive A/H1N1 flue cases in Tanzania have reached 737 since the first case was reported in early July this year, Tanzanian senior medical official said.

    Out of the above cases, 45 are fresh and quarantined at a special camp in Mwanza Region in northwest Tanzania, the Tanzanian Sunday News quoted Chief Medical Officer Deogratius Mtasiwa as saying.

    Mtasiwa said the fresh patients are all inmates at Butimba Prison, who are under close monitoring and medical care.

    The latest development has come hardly a month after the disease broke out in Kwimba District also in Mwanza last month where 40 patients were quarantined, following the reports in which142 people were suspected of being infected.

    Following the dangerous situation in the area, the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has taken several measures to contain the situation, including the closure of Ilula Primary School in Kwimba District where some students and teachers got infected, the chief medical officer said.

    He added that the situation is back to normal in Kwimba and that the inmates at Butimba prison are not at risk of further infections following the quarantining of the positive cases.

    "All is well now in Kwimba and in Butimba. We have managed to place other inmates out of harm's way. All other parts of the country are, at the moment, free from the epidemic," he said.

    Sufficient stocks of medicine have been distributed by the Tanzanian government to health centers to prevent further spread of the disease, according to Mtasiwa.    

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