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Dr Kumnuan Ungchusak, an expert in preventive medicine, hopes the public will stay calm despite the fast-growing number of swine-flu cases.

As of last Wednesday, Thailand had reported more than 400 cases of Type-A (H1N1).

"My message to the general public is to be neither fearful nor careless.

"The latest data [from the Thai authorities and the World Health Organisation] show that the mortality rate from this flu has dropped from a high of 7 per cent on April 28 to just around 0.4 per cent on June 15.

"Authorities worldwide were worried when it first appeared in Mexico in late April. We didn't have much data.

"The number of initial deaths was high, so virtually every country was on high alert. Now the fatality rate is comparable to seasonal flu.

"In Thailand, seasonal flu infects between 900,000 and one million people annually, with around 36,000 needing hospitalisation.

"Of these about 320 die, so the fatality rate is about 0.32 per cent," Kumnuan explained. He is member of the Bureau of Epidemiology and on the Public Health Ministry's swine-flu team.

The WHO says the flu has spread to more than 70 countries with over 30,000 infections and 140 deaths.

According to Kumnuan, schools are now the most vulnerable places of infection, followed by households and offices. Together, they account for an estimated 80 per cent of infections.

"Basically, you may contract this flu via direct inoculation, if you are within a metre of an infected person who sneezes directly in front of you, or auto-inoculation, if you pick your nose or rub your eyes after touching say a computer keyboard or a doorknob that harbours the virus.

"It's understood that the virus can survive in the right atmosphere for up to two or three hours, so if you're in contact with an infected area you could easily catch it.

"However, your immunity also plays a key role. In other words, you may not get infected if you're healthy," Kumnuan said.

The preventive-medicine expert, who has been working for the Bureau of Epidemiology since 1983, suggests that everyone be responsible and concerned for other people by ensuring that they cover their mouth with a handkerchief or tissue when sneezing in public, and that every infected person wear a face mask in public. Masks are not necessary for the uninfected, since most are not designed to filter germs.

Everybody should wash their hands often he says, because auto-inoculation is far more common that direct inoculation.

"You should wash your hands thoroughly several times a day, not just at meal times.

"Last but not least, every student and worker should take leave when they are ill and stay at home so they don't spread the virus in public places.

"However, experts are not recommending that a school be closed every time a student gets ill. The United States, for instance, has stopped doing that because it's not possible to be completely free of the new virus.

"It's better for sick students to stay at |home instead, so students that are healthy can continue with their classes. If we keep shutting down schools every time someone catches an infection, nobody will get educated," Kumnuan said.