Thailand on flu alert

Thai workers clean escalators at a shopping mall in Bangkok. --PHOTO: AP

BANGKOK – THAILAND warned on Thursday that domestic infections of swine flu are soaring, as officials said the number of cases had jumped nearly forty-fold from just eight days earlier. The health ministry said there were now 518 confirmed cases of the A(H1N1) virus, with just two of the 113 cases confirmed since Wednesday involving people who had caught it abroad.  ‘Laboratory tests confirmed 113 new cases today.
Of these only two cases contracted the virus from overseas, the rest are local infections,’ Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said in a statement. He said that there were no reports of fatalities so far and only 12 people remain in hospital with the virus. The ministry said it was ‘straightforwardly’ revealing all new cases to the public and closely cooperating with the World Health Organisation (WHO). Thai authorities said this week that they would distribute one million public health booklets about swine flu, while Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has urged people not to panic about A(H1N1). Many of the cases in Thailand have been students, while a cluster of 21 infections was found among nightclub workers in the beach resort of Pattaya last week. Thailand had its first reported case of swine flu on May 12 and its first domestic case in early June. — AFP

Dated : 18 June 2009

SOURCE : http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_392121.html