Botswana on Friday reported its first case of swine flu, but the c health ministry refused to identify the patient who is receiving treatment at a Gaborone hospital.

"Laboratory confirmation was received this morning," ministry spokesman Themba Sibanda said in a statement.

The patient's case was first suspected on July 7, when samples were sent to a lab in neighbouring South Africa for confirmation, director of public health Sheenaz El-Halabi told a press conference.

"The patient has been confined to a hospital in Gaborone for some time now," she said.

Doctors are still trying to find out how the patient contracted the virus, she added.

Sibanda said the ministry had been working on a prevention strategy since reports of the A(H1N1) outbreak were first reported in other parts of the world.

"Systems and structures are in place to monitor and address the situation," he said, adding that a hospital ward in Gaborone had been set aside specifically for any breakouts of swine flu.

South Africa has reported 48 cases of the virus, none of them fatal. The region is the middle of the southern hemisphere's winter, the season when the disease is most likely to spread.

A handful of pharmaceutical companies around the world are working to develop a vaccine against A(H1N1) influenza, which the World Health Organization (WHO) says has infected nearly 100,000 people in 137 countries and territories, and caused over 440 deaths worldwide.

Sapa

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