22 including 3 foreigners under watch for influenza

Dr Phaijit Warachit deputy permanent secretary

The three foreigners, all of whom are in a Samut Prakan hospital, are a Hong Kong resident and two Swedes. They were described as "not being in a worrying stage", said deputy permanent secretary Dr Paijit Warachit, adding that none of their travel itineraries seemed to have put them at risk of exposure to the disease before they entered Thailand.

Two more Thais were suspected of being at risk yesterday, parents living in Chachoengsao who just returned from a trip to the US.

They reported a high fever and headache and were treated at a medical centre in Chon Buri province. Their test results will be known today.

Responding to news reports that more than 70 commonflu patients in Thailand were resistant to the antiviral drug oseltamivir, Paijit said the Public Health Ministry was conducting tests on two suspected of having caught the typeA (H1N1) virus and that the results would be known next month.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Ministry's Disease Control Department said it was notified by the Portuguese government of a suspected case in which a citizen came down with a high fever and fell ill upon his return from a trip to Thailand.

Dr Passakorn Akkharasewi, director of the department's Epidemiology Bureau, said the man was diagnosed in Portugal with the bacterial disease legionellosis.

Passakorn said the man took a direct flight to Thailand, stayed in two hotels in Bangkok and the South, and then flew back to Portugal before experiencing the symptoms.

Staff at both hotels have been interviewed and asked to sanitise the rooms in which the man stayed as a precaution, said Passakorn.