Number of flu patients hit 150 Sunday

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the public not to panic, but warned that "it's not an easy fix" with tens of thousands of passengers arriving daily at airports from abroad.

"Definitely it will affect tourism, but I still think it's better to be transparent,'' he said on his weekly television program Sunday. "Trying to conceal what's happening will only makes things worse."

The number of cases in Thailand jumped from 47 on Friday to 106 on Saturday and to 150 on Sunday.

Permanent Secretary for Health Dr Prat Boonyavongvirot said,  "We have found 150 confirmed H1N1 cases as of today."

"They are not new cases, but we just got laboratory confirmation from patients' samples we took earlier,'' he said. More lab test results are coming, so the ministry expected expect the number to continue to rise in the next few days."

Most of the patients lived in Bangkok and had recently returned from trips overseas, he said.

Earlier 17 kindergarterners test positive; THAI crew to be grounded if passengers test positive

Seventeen pupils of a kindergarten in Pathum Thani province were on Saturday confirmed to have the Type-A (H1N1) influenza, thus bringing Thailand's confirmed H1N1-virus patients to 106, a five-fold leap from Wednesday's 16.

Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said that 17 of 50 kindergarten students whose virus samples were collected for testing on Friday had tested positive for H1N1.

"Altogether 106 swine-flu cases were confirmed today," Wittaya said, adding that academics said Thailand had the flu outbreak in some areas but they remained within a limited circle.

Nearly 100 more kindergarteners, many with fever, went for check-ups at Pathum Thani Hospital yesterday morning, while provincial governor Preecha Butsri had officials clean all schools in Muang district in a bid to stop the disease from spreading.

Wittaya said the ministry and medical experts had agreed to bring treatment in line with the latest updates, especially in the matter of anti-viral medication, which would now be given only to those in need to prevent drug resistance. This will be notified to all doctors nationwide on Tuesday, he said. The ministry also suggested the general public take care not to fall ill and that businesses and schools send sick employees and students home rather than closing their premises. For details, go to www.moph.go.th.

Deputy Permanent Secretary for Public Health Dr Paijit Warachit said that besides the 17 new confirmed cases, lab confirmations were pending on a Mahidol Univ-ersity student and patients in Ratchaburi and Roi Et.

Citing the latest WHO report that there have been 29,669 cases in 74 countries and 145 deaths, he said that Thailand had 106 cases and most of those affected had recovered.

Dr Tawee Chotepita-yasunon, who chairs the ministry's influenza academic team, said the Thai situation was at level B, an outbreak in a limited circle with only 10-15 patients to a group, but that it was expected that the situation would be upgraded in one month to level C, extensive outbreaks as seen in the US, the UK and Japan.

The public must be told the virus is not dangerous and only 10 per cent of people exposed to it fall ill and 0.01 per cent die, mostly those with previous medical problems, he said.

Bangkok Governor MR Sukhum-bhand Paribatra yesterday said the city's 435 schools would be cleaned yesterday and today while teachers at kindergarten and primary levels were instructed to watch their pupils carefully as they were of the age most at risk.

He said there was no need to close all schools.

Urging city residents not to panic about this curable disease, he said a meeting of representatives of schools, tutorial academies, hospitals and shopping malls would be held tomorrow at 1pm at the JJ Mall to achieve a better understanding of the new flu and how to prevent an outbreak.

Meanwhile, the crew of any Thai Airways International flight will be grounded for seven days for monitoring if a passenger tests positive, a senior THAI official said yesterday.

Surapol Isarakura na Ayutthaya, head of crisis management at THAI, said this would ensure the crew did not pass on the virus. Flight crew of flights returning from risk countries will also be required to undergo check-ups at the Bamrasnaradu Infectious Disease Institute, he said.