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Spike in flu cases prompts Thailand to shut schools
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-17 07:47
BANGKOK: Thailand announced a 50 percent increase in swine flu cases yesterday and ordered a dozen schools to close for a week as confirmed infections mounted across Asia-Pacific and new cases were reported in the Middle East. New Zealand reported 28 new cases, matching its biggest jump in cases in a single day. The World Health Organization declared the H1N1 flu a pandemic last week. There have been no fatalities reported so far in Asia. Thailand's Public Health Ministry yesterday confirmed 109 new cases, the largest jump in a single day since the country's first case was confirmed in May. Eighty-four of the new cases are students. Thailand now has 310 confirmed cases. Prat Boonyavongvirot, the ministry's permanent secretary, said most patients have made a full recovery while some are still being treated. The Education Ministry has ordered the closure of 14 schools for a week to prevent the spread of the flu, he said, adding that the schools have undergone disinfecting in recent days. New Zealand reported 28 new cases, equaling its biggest jump in cases in a single day since swine flu was first confirmed in late April. It raised the country's total to 99. First cases in Qatar, Jordan Jordan and Qatar identified their first cases of the H1N1 flu virus in four young patients who had recently arrived from the United States and Austria. Qatar detected its first cases in a two-year-old boy from New Zealand who had arrived from Austria on Saturday and a two-and-half-year old American boy who had arrived from New York via Bangladesh on Sunday, the state news agency said. Jordan detected the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, in two girls who had recently arrived from the United States, the health minister said. "We discovered two cases yesterday. Two Jordanian girls, an 11-year-old and a 17-year-old, who were both in the United States and had arrived last week," Health Minister Nayef al-Fayez told a news conference. Patients in both countries were being treated and recovering, the ministers said. H1N1, a mixture of swine, bird and human viruses, has killed 165 people and infected over 37,000, according to the World Health Organization's latest tallies. AP-Reuters (China Daily 06/17/2009 page11) |
