SA schools on swine flu alert

Pretoria, 06 Aug-(ANA)-Schools in South Africa have been placed on flu alert after swine-flu claimed its first South African victim.

The victim - a 22-year-old university student - was attending Stellenbosch University in the Western Cape.

The province's health minister Theuns Botha has assured parents that "there is no need to panic".

The education department has said it would not close public schools to minimize the risk. However two private schools in Johannesburg have been closed after several pupils tested positive for the A(H1N1) strain of influenza.

The World Health Organisation has estimated that 2-billion people could be infected by the virus.

So far over 700 South Africans have been confirmed to have contracted the virus.(ANA)

FA/ANA/06 August 2009---