More swine flu cases, human-to-human transmission detected in Vietnam

Vietnam on June 7 reported three new laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza A (H1N1), taking the total number of cases so far to 13, and confirmed transmission between humans in one of them.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health (DoH) confirmed that the three new swine flu-affected people returned from the US. A 10-year-old boy, his mother, and his three-year-old sister arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport on June 5 after transiting in Hong Kong.

Discovering the boy had high fever, the airport quarantine center took him in and sent samples to the Pasteur Institute, which found him positive for the A/H1N1 flu virus.

Immediately, his mother and sister were taken to Children’s Hospital No.1 and they too tested positive.

Health authorities are now trying to trace the other passengers who arrived on the same flight as the three infected people.

On the same day, the DoH announced a case of human-to-human A/H1N1 transmission. A 19-year-old girl in the southern province of Dong Nai has never been abroad but has tested positive for the flu.

She lives with four infected people -- a 39-year-old woman and her three children who arrived from the US on May 29.

The head of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Environment, Nguyen Huy Nga, fears a possible epidemic since awareness is low in the country.

The Ministry of Health has warned passengers returning from affected nations to keep away from other people and wear masks in public places to avoid transmitting the disease.

At Tan Son Nhat airport, passengers arriving from the US, Japan, Hong Kong (China), and Taiwan (China) and suspected to be infected are being quarantined for tests.

DoH director Nguyen Van Chau has called for setting up an inter-regional steering team on the disease and asked the city’s Tropical Diseases Hospital share the burden with the Pasteur Institute which is being overrun by people seeking to get tested. More equipment is being provided to medical establishments.