www.chinaview.cn  2009-06-04 01:07:55 |   Print |
Hong Kong, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The flu A/H1N1 infection cases keep rising in the Asia-Pacific region as the flu-stricken countries and regions, including Japan, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand, all reported fresh confirmed cases on Thursday.
With five more cases confirmed in Shizuoka, Tokyo and Chiba, Japan's tally of confirmed cases of the new strain of flu virus infection reached 410 in Japan on Thursday, the health authorities said.
In Tokyo, a 25-year-old male student who returned from the United States on Tuesday tested positive for the flu. In Shizuoka, local authorities confirmed that two men, in their 20s, have been infected with the new flu virus.
The cases were reported at a time when the flu appeared to be running out of steam in Japan.
With the resumption of classes at Kobe Gakuin University High School Wednesday, all schools, which were closed amid the flu fears, reopened in western Japan's Kobe.
Thailand's Public Health Ministry confirmed on Thursday the country's first human-to-human case of A/H1N1 flu infection.
The ministry said the patient is a 19-year-old man, who has not traveled abroad. He was infected by his mother, who was sick of the A/H1N1 flu after returning from the United States.
His mother, 49, developed the flu symptoms as she and her husband returned from the U.S. on May 25. The husband was earlier confirmed to have been infected with the flu.
His parents have already recovered from the disease, the health authority said, without revealing any details about the latest patient's condition.
In addition, the source said the country's eighth case of the A/H1N1 flu is a 20-year-old woman, whose flu symptoms had started from May 30 while she was in the United States. The woman arrived in Thailand on Monday and was admitted to hospital on Tuesday.
The Philippine health authorities said seven more patients were tested positive for influenza A/H1N1 on Thursday, bringing the total number of the country's confirmed cases to 29.
One of the newly-confirmed cases is a 20-year-old male overseas student at the De La Salle University, who is a contact of the first case confirmed at the school on Wednesday.
The other six cases are Filipinos who all returned from trips to the United States, Health Secretary Francisco Duque told reporters.
Duque said in all of the 29 confirmed cases, patients manifested only with mild symptoms reflecting the general trend and behavior of the virus in other affected countries.
"With further characterization of the virus in our local cases, if we see that A/H1N1 poses no severe threat and is self-limited in most cases, we may be seeing a shift in our control strategy to outpatient and home management of patients showing only mild symptoms," he said.
Since May 1, the Philippine Department of Health has monitored a total of 414 cases under observation. Besides the 29 positive cases, 47 are pending laboratory results, and 338 others are negative for the virus.
In Australia, the number of A/H1N1 flu cases surged to 876 by Thursday afternoon, according to local media reports on Thursday.
The Victoria state alone had a total of 752, according to the state's health department, with the next closest state being New South Wales with 74 as of Thursday afternoon.
Victoria is now placed in the same category as Mexico, Panama and Japan.
There are no travel restrictions within Australia so far or for people arriving at or departing the country, according to the federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon.
The neighboring New Zealand also reported another flu infection case, which took the country's total confirmed number to 11.
The person arrived in New Zealand on May 30 on Air NZ flight NZ5, although the confirmed case was notified only Wednesday.
Sixty-three people were in isolation or quarantine and being treated with Tamiflu, up from 54 since Wednesday.
Although New Zealand's confirmed Influenza A/H1N1 cases had been capped at 11, health authorities believed that an increase was inevitable, particularly given the soaring number of cases in Australia.
Malaysia also reported three new cases of A/H1N1 flu on Thursday, bringing the tally to five, said Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai.
The latest flu patients were two German tourists, who arrived at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal near here on AirAsia flight AK702Wednesday afternoon.
The two patients, aged 30 and 32, arrived in Singapore on Monday for their holiday in Asian countries. They were confirmed with the disease Thursday afternoon after having developed fever in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
Earlier Thursday, Malaysia reported the third A/H1N1 flu case --a student, who returned from the United States on Malaysian Airlines flight MH091 on Monday.
The Malaysian health authorities are tracing the 276 passengers and crew members on the same flights with the three patients.
Malaysia announced the first A/H1N1 flu case in the country on May 15 and the second on May 16. Both were students who returned home from the United States.
Singapore has confirmed its 12th case of Influenza A/ H1N1, the country's Health Ministry said on Thursday.
The patient is an 18-year-old Singaporean man. He went to Melbourne on May 16 and returned to Singapore on Emirates EK405 on Monday.
The Health Ministry said the contact tracing is ongoing for the latest case. The ministry also advised the public to avoid non-essential travel to affected areas, including Melbourne and Victoria in Australia, Kobe and Osaka in Japan, Chile, the United States, Canada and Mexico.
In China's Hong Kong, three people were tested positive for theA/H1N1 virus on Thursday, taking the number of confirmed cases in the populous city to 30, according to information from local health authorities. But no further report is available at the stage.
Vietnam on Thursday confirmed the country's fourth infection case in Ho Chi Minh City. The Health Department said a six-year-old Vietnamese girl recently returning home from the United Stateshas been confirmed to be infected with the flu virus, according to local media report.
The girl is receiving treatment now. All of the four infected patients in the country have recently returned from the United States.
After treatment, the first three cases are now tested negative to the virus and may be discharged from hospital next week, said the report.
Although this news is some days late, it seems that there are more and more swine flu cases keep coming up.
- wong chee tat :)
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