School being closed to cut infection risk

Closures of schools are being ordered widely to cope with outbreaks of the type-A(H1N1) influenza, including an entire junior class at a Khon Kaen vocational college and a primary school in Bangkok involving hundreds of students.

An entire Navy conscript training centre housing 600 sailors in Chon Buri's Sattahip district has been quarantined, after a sailor died of an unknown flu-like illness. The quarantine will continue for another seven days, although 22 sailors have been treated and discharged from hospital.

The junior class at Isan Rajamongkhol Institute Khon Kaen campus, of 111 students, has been closed after 15 students caught the disease and doctors say more confirmed cases are likely. Sanitisation of lecture rooms and facilities is set to begin today.

The Ban Bang Kapi School in Bangkok has closed and will reopen on July 9, after an 11-year-old fifth grader caught the disease. Initial reports speculated she may have been exposed to the virus on a public bus. She is recovering after receiving hospital treatment.

In Ubon Ratchathani, a 14-year-old girl has returned from Bangkok with the disease after attending a concert last weekend. Three of her schoolmates at Benjama Maharaj School in Muang district also have unknown illnesses and a seven-day closure has been ordered.

Deputy Bangkok governor Malinee Sukvejworrakij said school managements in Bangkok could freely choose to close their schools independently to minimise the risk of influenza, as five people had now died of the disease. Normally Bangkok based schools can be closed only with the mutual approval of school management, the Public Health Ministry and the city administration.

Angthong Patthamaroj Witthayakhom has closed and will be reopened on July 9, after a student became infected and 100 were treated for mild flu yesterday.

More than 70 students at Satree Angthong School are ill and were ordered home after treatment. The school will be closed if necessary, public health officials said.

 Meanwhile, a correspondent for the health and medical unit at Television Channel 3 tested positive to the new flu virus. She is now undergoing hospital treatment.

The Department of Disease Control will invite all companies providing housekeeping services to inform them on how to educate their staffs on influenza infection prevention.

 As experience of this virus remains limited and progress of the influenza outbreak unpredictable, a national advisory board on medical emergency will meet on Friday to discuss it and find out how to prevent infected people from developing serious complications, or dying, from type-A(H1N1) influenza infection.