Health officials in 35 provinces on high A(H1N1) influenza alert
Health officials in 35 provinces on high A(H1N1) influenza alert as winter sets in
MAE HONG SON: — Thailand’s Minister of Public Health Witthaya Kaewparadai on Sunday placed health officials in 35 northern and north-eastern provinces on high alert to respond to the second wave of the Influenza Type A(H1N1) as winter begins.
Mr Witthaya said as he delivered A(H1N1) control and prevention policies to health officials and volunteers in the northern province of Mae Hong Son.
He said the new virus strain is still spreading in Thailand and it is forecast that six million Thais have contracted and now are immune to the disease, while some 57 million remain at vulnerable.
As we are now entering the winter season, the cold weather encourages virus to grow and spread, combined with an increased number of Thai and foreign tourists in this high season, the minister said, there is a greater risk of the spread of the A(H1N1) pandemic.
Mr Witthaya said he has instructed health officials, particularly in 35 northern and northeastern provinces to be on high alert as winter has begun earlier and is expected to last longer, while urging local residents and tourists to follow A(H1N1) preventive measures as the disease can be easily contracted.
The minister said that every province is maintaining measures reduce the number of A(H1N1) patients and fatalities, and that 96 provincial hospitals have specialists on the new virus strain on standby at the hospital around the clock.
The Public Health Ministry earlier confirmed that the country had no fatalities related to A(H1N1) when it made its report last Wednesday, marking the first week in four months without a death from the A(H1N1).
The ministry also reported the number of fatalities from A(H1N1) stands at 184, with the total number of affected patients numbering some 29,000 people.
Public health ministry sees new flu outbreak
BANGKOK: — A second round of Type A (H1N1) influenza has emerged in Thailand this month, as a third of the soldiers in a Phetchabun army base and many schoolchildren in Nakhon Ratchasima, Samut Prakan and other provinces have shown flu-like symptoms.
Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said Thursday that the ministry instructed hospitals to prepare stocks of antiviral medications and to closely monitor high-risk groups.
The government will order one million doses of imported vaccines, he said, with 800,000 to be given to the Disease Control Department to treat high-risk persons, while the rest will be for the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) to sell to private medical facilities.