[health-vn] Canadian traveller quarantined for flu

[Vern Weitzel]

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01HEA270509

Canadian traveller quarantined for flu

(27-05-2009)

HCM CITY — The HCM City Department of Health yesterday quarantined a Canadian 
traveller after discovering that he had sat next to a passenger who had tested 
positive for the H1N1 virus, following a flight from the US to Hong Kong.

The man arrived in HCM City on Sunday.

After his arrival at Tan Son Nhat Airport, the Department for Preventive Health 
and Environment under the Ministry of Health notified the HCM City Department of 
Health about the case.

The municipal department yesterday ordered the District 1 Preventive Health 
Department to quarantine the Canadian man at the HCM City Tropical Diseases 
Hospital. Test results will be announced today.

In another case, a Vietnamese man, who had been quarantined two days ago, tested 
negative for the virus.

He had sat next to two Taiwanese passengers who tested positive for the H1N1 
virus following a flight from San Francisco to Taipei and HCM City.

According to a report from the department, seven other travellers with a body 
temperature above 38 degrees Celsius arrived yesterday from Australia, Japan, 
Malaysia and Viet Nam.

They have all been quarantined at HCM City Tropical Diseases Hospital and 
Children’s 1 Hospital.

Six of them tested negative for the virus and the test results of another have 
yet to be announced.

City health officials said no one in the city had tested positive for the virus 
since the begininng of the global outbreak.

Some 6.130 passengers passed through the HCM City airport yesterday. From April 
26 to May 26, the city had quarantined 72 travellers, all of whom have tested 
negative.

City health officials are under pressure to quarantine travellers suspected of 
contracting the virus, as more cases have been reported in the region, according 
to Phan Van Nghiem, head of the department’s Medical Profession Division.

According to the World Health Organisation, 46 countries and territories have 
seen a total of 12,515 people infected with the virus.

Ninety-one people infected with the virus have died worldwide. — VNS