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Last Tuesday, the Minister of Public Health said that the returned lab result confirmed that both Thais who returned from a visit to Mexico suffering from a mild fever had been confirmed with H1N1 flu but have recovered from the virus. Minister of Public Health Witthaya Kaewparadai said the patients had fully recovered after treatment and returned home.

I read newspapers that morning and felt that several of them exaggerated the case. Some even created negative feeling in a sense that the preventive measures were inadequate and needed to be intensified. I personally think that should we thoroughly consider those measures, we would notice that they were effective in preventing the epidemic into our country.

Firstly, the measure to put those returning from a country which was the epicentre of the outbreak under surveillance until they were cleared helped medical authorities detect the suspected cases in an early stage and to provide both of them with timely treatments. (A medical doctor informed me that the sooner the anti-viral medicines are provided to patients, the better chance for them to recover fully).

Secondly, the measure to have the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) stockpile antiviral medicine is a useful and appropriate preparation which made the needed medicine available for timely use in these two cases.

Thirdly, though the two Thai infected patients had relatively mild symptoms and recovered, samples from the patients were still sent to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US for laboratory confirmation. Such conduct was well thought-out and prudent and surely would help our public health and medical practices in disease surveillance.

Fourthly, the constant public communication ever since the two patients were suspected of contracting the virus, when the samples were sent for lab test, when they were fully recovered, and even when the lab test results had confirmed both cases. The public can, consequently, |rest assured that the national health authorities have effective response measures to the influenza.

In spite of this, a few newspapers assumed that an epidemic had hit Thailand and disturbingly spread out. Such assumptions and reports could cause negative effects for Thailand. What actually happened was that only two Thais, just returned from a visit to an epicentre country of the outbreak, contracted the disease. However, with beneficial preventive measures, the suspected cases had been found while they were still in quarantine centres and not yet returned home. Therefore, they were under surveillance without contaminating others while recovering after receiving intensive treatment.

At present, there is still no report of the influenza A(H1N1) spreading out into Thailand. The inconsiderate publication of such a threat might harm our own country. A headline on the front page of one English newspaper was written "Govt. 'must contain flu'". This sentence could lead anyone, at first glance, to think that the outbreak had already started in the country. However, when I read through the news in detail, there was as yet no spread of the virus.

 Those infected while overseas were quarantined, had taken a course of antiviral oseltamivir and had fully recovered before returning home. The said newspaper might be blissfully unaware that it is one of the most circulated English newspapers in our neighbouring countries. Such a headline might cause misunderstanding that Thailand has been hit by the epidemic, which was not true.

In time of the present fragile economic situation, we all should be cautious in not causing even more damage to our economy and society.

Until Next Monday.