BANGKOK — Thailand is worried about a swine flu outbreak on a naval base after seven cadets tested positive and 200 more fell ill, while three more American students visiting Cambodia were diagnosed with the disease.
Press reports said Papua New Guinea's health minister was quarantined with flu symptoms and was awaiting results of tests after visiting Australia.
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| Thai students wear face masks at a school in Bangkok on June 11. (Photo: Getty Images) |
He said the other cadets with symptoms were isolated in separate quarters at the base. They are all in stable condition and being tested for the virus. Thailand reported 69 new cases Thursday, bringing the national total to 1,054.
Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bun Heng told reporters that three students who arrived from the U.S. state of Texas on June 19 had tested positive for the virus. They ranged in age from 16 to 20 and raised Cambodia's total cases to four.
On Wednesday, authorities announced the country's first swine flu case in a 16-year-old girl—part of the student group—who developed flu symptoms a day after arriving. She sought medical care Monday.
The World Health Organization said in a statement that the four Americans were recovering well without any complications.
In Papua New Guinea, the Post Courier newspaper reported Tuesday that Health Minister Sasa Zibe had been placed under quarantine with flu symptoms and was awaiting results of tests.
Australian Broadcasting Corp radio reported that Zibe told a health conference on Monday in Papua New Guinea that he believed he had contracted the illness while attending a meeting in Australia the previous week. Wearing a mask, he reportedly told the conference that he wouldn't mind if tests proved he had swine flu.
"I want to have that experience so as a minister I will go out and tell the nation, 'This is how you will feel, so this is what you will do,'" he said.
In other developments in the region:
— New Zealand, the first country in Asia-Pacific to record the disease, confirmed it now has 417 cases.
— The Philippines raised its toll of sickened to 727. All cases are mild and include three foreigners.
— Hong Kong confirmed 62 new cases, raising its total to 506. The territory has said it will end the school year early to slow transmission of the virus.
— A Bangladeshi man tested positive for swine flu, raising the country's total to eight.
— The South Pacific nation of Vanuatu confirmed its first cases after two 5-year-old children tested positive for the virus.
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