Flu tests to be focused on most at risk

The ministry will also lower its preventive measures against the new influenza at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport after learning the thermal scanners are ineffective.

Ministry permanent secretary, Dr Prat Boonyawongvirot said he had asked the Private Hospital Association's president, Dr Auechart Kanjanpitak to recommend member hospitals limit their testing to high risk patients.

Included in this group are children under five, pregnant women and elderly people with chronic conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, who would be tested.

Prat said the ministry was analysing at least 200 - 300 samples a day for the influenza infection. Of these, 150-200 samples came from private hospitals.

The ministry's Department of Medical Science charges private hospitals Bt4,000 per sample for the testing service; while private hospitals are charging applicants at least Bt 8,000.

" Private hospitals should charge patients reasonable prices for the testing service," he said.

As the Department of Disease Control takes responsibility for supporting the budget for testing services, the director-general, Dr Somchai Chakrabhan said his agency now does not have the money to support the service.

Currently a vaccine for the new flu virus is not available. Prat warned the public not to respond to advertising telling them to receive injections for the new flu virus at hospitals.

However, the Public Health Ministry is campaigning against seasonal flu and next month will give shots to two million people, the ministry's spokesperson, Dr Suphan Srithamma said.

The flu vaccination program will start on August 1 for the high risk groups.

"They have higher risk from seasonal flu illness than other groups if they get infected," he said. "Some could die from complications like pneumonia."

Confirmed cases of influenza type-A(H1N1) in Thailand have reached 405 after 95 new cases were reported yesterday. Of the 405 cases, 393 have already recovered.

Among the new cases, three had returned from foreign trips while the remainder were students and local people. He said 12 were undergoing hospital treatment.

Meanwhile, World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported 35, 928 cases of type-A(H1N1) influenza infection, including 163 deaths in 76 countries.

At Suvarnabhumi, airport passengers will no longer be required to fill in health questionnaires distributed on incoming planes.

Somchai said the ministry had distributed over 500,000 of the forms to passengers, but only 10 per cent returned them to health authorities.

" We wasted a lot of money using this measure to screen passengers," he said.

The 15 thermal scanners at the airport have been successfully screening only 10 percent of all incoming passengers - prompting the ministry to adjust its measures. It will continue using the scanners, but together with a rapid test kit.

 " We have to reduce our efforts in fighting the spread of the new flu virus because we have learnt this virus is just a flu and is low in human severity," said the Disease Control Department's spokesperson, Dr Suppamit Chunsutiwat.