Thailand - H1N1 - 153 deaths

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 confirmed

It seems to be TWO patients.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Thailand reports first confirmed case of swine flu

The Associated Press , Bangkok | Tue, 05/12/2009 4:02 PM | World

Thailand's health minister announced Tuesday that the Southeast Asian country had confirmed its first cases of swine flu in two people who had recently returned from Mexico, and both wre recovering.

Health Minister Witthaya Keawparadai declined to disclose details about the patients, citing doctor-patient confidentiality and the fact that both were recovering.

"We have confirmed two cases of H1N1 influenza A," Witthaya told a news conference. "There is no outbreak in Thailand." The cases in Thailand also marked the official arrival of swine flu in Southeast Asia. Other countries on the continent have reported cases, including China, Japan and South Korea.

Shortly before the news conference, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had told reporters that authorities had confirmed Thailand's first case of swine flu in a single male patient.

He said health authorities had sent a sample from the patient last week to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for final testing.

"The U.S. has confirmed the case," Abhisit told reporters, adding, "I understand he is safe ... He has recovered, as far as I know."

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/05/12/thailand-reports-first-confirmed-case-swine-flu.html

[HenryN]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05120901/Swine_H1N1_Thailand.html">Commentary</a>

[FluBossie]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

Thailand says two flu patients visited Mexico

Tue May 12, 2009 9:14am BST

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Two Thais who returned from Mexico have been confirmed with H1N1 flu but have recovered from the virus, Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said on Tuesday.
Eight other Thais who were in contact with the two infected people were released after being quarantined for a week and show no signs of the virus, he said.
"We have found two confirmed cases of the flu, which was contracted abroad. They have recovered," Witthaya told a news conference.
He gave no details of the two patients and did not say when or where they had travelled in Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak also known as swine flu.
The World Health Organisation has confirmed 4,379 infections worldwide, with the worst impact in North America, where 60 people have died, mostly in Mexico.
Despite the small number of cases to date in Asia, health experts say the region cannot afford to be complacent after bouts of SARS and bird flu in recent years.
Last week, health ministers from 13 Asian countries agreed in Bangkok to boost antiviral drug stockpiles and tighten surveillance against the virus.
The global spread of the virus has raised concerns about a possible pandemic, although scientists say this strain does not appear more deadly than seasonal flu.
Nevertheless, the impact of H1N1 on global travel has added to the gloom in Thailand's tourist industry, which has already suffered a sharp drop in arrivals due to the global economic crisis and political unrest at home.
(Reporting by Kittipong Soonprasert; Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Alan Raybould and Dean Yates)


&#169; Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE54B0ZO20090512

[nomadic wench]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

Well Thailand has had a lot of concerns about its tourism industry lately...anti-government riots and airport closures as well as SARS, birdflu and economic crisis etc so they could be tempted to keep it quiet. However as countries like the US are far more affected right now it wouldn't make much sense to be secretive.

Just saw Muscade has posted about a second confirmed case in the French section.

Les &#233;chantillons de virus pr&#233;lev&#233;s sur le patient ont &#233;t&#233; envoy&#233;s au Centre am&#233;ricain pour le contr&#244;le des maladies (USCDC, en sigle anglais) et ce dernier a confirm&#233; au gouvernement tha&#239;landais que le patient &#233;tait infect&#233; &#224; la grippe A/H1N1, a fait savoir M. Witthaya.
En ce qui concerne le deuxi&#232;me cas, le ministre a pr&#233;cis&#233; que le patient s'&#233;tait senti souffrant avec une fi&#232;vre mod&#233;r&#233;e trois jours apr&#232;s son arriv&#233;e en Tha&#239;lande, alors que les tests de laboratoire ont &#233;galement confirm&#233; que le second cas avait &#233;t&#233; infect&#233; par la grippe A/H1N1.

My amateur translation.

Samples taken from the patient were sent to the CDC and the latter confirmed to the Thai government. that the patient was infected by influenza A/H1N1, said Mr Witthaya.

As for the second case, the minister specified that the patient felt ill with a moderate fever three days after his arrival in Thailand, and tests have also confirmed the second case had been infected with influenza A/H1N1

Maybe the Thai govt just needed confirmation too before announcing the first case? No mention of CDC for the second case.

[HenryN]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

Well Thailand has had a lot of concerns about its tourism industry lately...anti-government riots and airport closures as well as SARS, birdflu and economic crisis etc so they could be tempted to keep it quiet. However as countries like the US are far more affected right now it wouldn't make much sense to be secretive.

Just saw Muscade has posted about a second confirmed case in the French section.




My amateur translation.



Maybe the Thai govt just needed confirmation too before announcing the first case? No mention of CDC for the second case.

H1N1, like H5N1 is ALL about politics (no science required).
There was NO doubt on May 9 that swine H1N1 was in patients in Thailand.

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

More on the second

The Thai government Tuesday confirmed that two cases of influenza A H1N1 have been detected in the kingdom, both patients had caught the virus while in Mexico.

Lab results from the Centre for Disease Control in the United States had confirmed the A(H1N1) virus in samples from two suspected swine-flu patients from Thailand, Thai Health Minister Wittaya Geowparadai told a press conference.

"Both patients caught the virus is Mexico," Wittaya said.

The first patient, a 42-year-old Thai woman who visited Mexico last month on a seminar, was admitted to Chulalongkorn Hospital last month after showing flu-like symptoms. Health authorities initially said the woman was only suffering from human flu, but lab tests from the US proved them wrong.

The second suspected case was announced on Saturday, and confirmed by US lab results Tuesday. "Both patients have been given anti-viral drugs and have fully recovered," Wittaya said.

He added that people who had some in close contact with the two patients had been put under quarantine and given anti-viral drugs.

Thailand has imposed a host of preventative measures against the spread of A H1N1, including planting heat-seeking devices at the country's main international airports to detect arrivals suffering from fever. The country has a stockpile of 1.32 million tablets of oseltamivir and the health ministry Tuesday asked for an extra budget to buy enough raw materials to locally produce another 2 million oseltamivir tablets.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/268426,thailand-confirms-two-cases-of-swine-flu--summary.html

[nomadic wench]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

Can I interrupt a second and ask about Dr Niman's graph. Those "could not be sub-typed" A viruses... could they be the first mutations of H1N1? Suddenly 5 at the bottom.

[HenryN]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

Can I interrupt a second and ask about Dr Niman's graph. Those "could not be sub-typed" A viruses... could they be the first mutations of H1N1?

No. That column just represents a testing backlog. 97&#37; of "could not be sub-typed" are subsequently sub-typed as swine H1N1 (see table, which has updated data showing swine H1N1 increasing as "untypable" decreases).
The CDC data are close to "real time".

[nomadic wench]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

Ah, thank you.

[HenryN]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

Ah, thank you.

Here is the data from the original report

<TABLE class=table border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 align=center><TBODY><TR><TH width=225 align=left></TH><TH width=150 noWrap align=middle>Week 17</TH></TR><TR><TD width=225 align=left>No. of specimens tested</TD><TD width=150 noWrap align=middle>14,330</TD></TR><TR><TD width=225 align=left>No. of positive specimens (%)</TD><TD width=150 noWrap align=middle>1,892 (13.2%)</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2 align=left>Positive specimens by type/subtype</TD></TR><TR><TD width=225 align=left> Influenza A</TD><TD width=150 noWrap align=middle>1,572 (83.1%)</TD></TR><TR><TD width=225 align=left> A (H1)</TD><TD width=150 noWrap align=middle> 334 (21.3%)</TD></TR><TR><TD width=225 align=left> A (H3)</TD><TD width=150 noWrap align=middle> 300 (19.1%)</TD></TR><TR><TD width=225 align=left> A (unsubtyped)</TD><TD width=150 noWrap align=middle> 308 (19.6%)</TD></TR><TR><TD width=225 align=left> A (could not be subtyped)</TD><TD width=150 noWrap align=middle> 304 (19.3%)</TD></TR><TR><TD width=225 align=left> A (novel influenza H1N1)</TD><TD width=150 noWrap align=middle> 326 (20.7%)</TD></TR><TR><TD width=220 align=left> Influenza B</TD><TD width=150 noWrap align=middle>320 (16.9%)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[HenryN]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

Here's the updated data (as of today)
<TABLE border=1><TBODY><TR><TD headers=header1 align=right>17 </TD><TD headers=header2 align=right>370 </TD><TD headers=header4 align=right>524 </TD><TD headers=header3 align=right>343 </TD><TD headers=header5 align=right>259 </TD><TD headers=header4 align=right>269 </TD><TD headers=header5 align=right>338 </TD><TD headers=header6 align=right>14928 </TD><TD headers=header7 align=right>14.09 </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Novel H1N1 rose from 326 to 524, while "could not be subtyped" fell from 304 to 259 (and specimens tested rose from 14,330 to 14,928).

[HenryN]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

More on the second

The Thai government Tuesday confirmed that two cases of influenza A H1N1 have been detected in the kingdom, both patients had caught the virus while in Mexico.

Lab results from the Centre for Disease Control in the United States had confirmed the A(H1N1) virus in samples from two suspected swine-flu patients from Thailand, Thai Health Minister Wittaya Geowparadai told a press conference.

"Both patients caught the virus is Mexico," Wittaya said.

The first patient, a 42-year-old Thai woman who visited Mexico last month on a seminar, was admitted to Chulalongkorn Hospital last month after showing flu-like symptoms. Health authorities initially said the woman was only suffering from human flu, but lab tests from the US proved them wrong.

The second suspected case was announced on Saturday, and confirmed by US lab results Tuesday. "Both patients have been given anti-viral drugs and have fully recovered," Wittaya said.

He added that people who had some in close contact with the two patients had been put under quarantine and given anti-viral drugs.

Thailand has imposed a host of preventative measures against the spread of A H1N1, including planting heat-seeking devices at the country's main international airports to detect arrivals suffering from fever. The country has a stockpile of 1.32 million tablets of oseltamivir and the health ministry Tuesday asked for an extra budget to buy enough raw materials to locally produce another 2 million oseltamivir tablets.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/s...--summary.html

The sequence at Genbank came from the 42F based on the location of the hospital

[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://flutracker.rhiza.com">Maps</a>

[nomadic wench]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

Health authorities initially said the woman was only suffering from human flu, but lab tests from the US proved them wrong.

I see what you mean Dr Niman but the patient was admitted last month. The gene sequences were available on May 9th. Were the Thai health authorities referring to the initial dx last month or were they deliberately covering up?

Did they keep saying it was seasonal flu after the sequences were known?

[HenryN]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

I see what you mean Dr Niman but the patient was admitted last month. The gene sequences were available on May 9th. Were the Thai health authorities referring to the initial dx last month or were they deliberately covering up?

Did they keep saying it was seasonal flu after the sequences were known?

My guess is that a month ago they were worried about H5N1, so when the sample was infleunza A positive, but H5N1 negative, they assumed it was a seasonal flu infection. Then when they heard about swine H1N1, the retested with swine H1N1 primers, and when they got a positive, they sequenced teh insert, which is what was sent to Genbank on Saturday.

[Laidback Al]

Re: Thailand - A / H1N1 cases confirmed

Thailand reports another suspected A/H1N1 flu case

BANGKOK, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Thailand reported another suspectedA/H1N1 flu infection case Thursday after a provincial hospital late Wednesday night admitted and quarantined a university lecturer who developed high fever following his foreign trip.
The lecturer of Rajabhat University Ayuddhaya has been to Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Egypt from May 1 to 10, with 25 people travelled with him during the foreign trip. Medical staff are preparing to search for these 25 people to prevent the spread.
The hospital of Ayudhya province, nearby Thai capital Bangkok, has taken the lecturer's blood sample for testing, to confirm whether he contracted the A/H1N1 flu virus.
The lecturer, whose name was not disclosed, is the first flu-infected suspect reported in Thailand since two flu infection case were confirmed on May 12.
According to updates from World Health Organization (WHO), there have been at least 5,728 confirmed A/H1N1 flu-infection case across the world, and at least 61 people died of the new flu strain.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/14/content_11372662.htm