Virus can be detected in four hours now

Now Chulalongkorn Hospital will take just four hours to determine if a patient has caught the Type A(H1N1) virus. Earlier, it took up to 18 hours.

"The procedure has become much quicker because we received ribonucleic acid or the genetic material of the influenza virus prototype for analysis on Monday," Dr Yong Poovorawan said yesterday.

He heads the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn Hospital's Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology.

The Type A(H1N1) virus has sparked fear across the globe. First detected in Mexico, the influenza has hit people in up to 21 countries, and 30 deaths from this virus have already been confirmed.

In response to outbreaks in several countries, Thailand has been enforcing many preventive measures, such getting passengers scanned for unusually high fever and quarantining those with flu-like symptoms.

So far, no cases of Type A(H1N1) influenza have been detected in the Kingdom.

Public Health Ministry spokesman Dr Sutham Srithamma yesterday announced that the three patients quarantined recently only had the common flu. One was a German tourist admitted into the Rajavithi Hospital, another quarantined at a hospital Nakhon Sawan and the third at a hospital in Ubon Ratchathani.

"They have all been discharged, and though they don't have fever anymore, public health officials will be checking on them over the next seven days," Sutham said, adding that pamphlets about the virus were now available at Suvarnabhumi Airport in both Thai and English.

"We will distribute similar pamphlets in other areas soon," Sutham said.

He added that Thai officials working in countries hit by the Type A(H1N1) virus would also receive face masks, hand-cleaning gel and a guideline on taking care of their health.

"We have also sent antiviral drugs to Thai embassies in those countries," Sutham said.

He added that public health officials were also planning to monitor the condition of passengers arriving in Thailand by train.

In a related development, the Cabinet yesterday approved the plan to procure another 10 thermal scanners to be used at border checkpoints, which let at least 500 people each through every day.