Canadian traveller quarantined for flu

The HCM City Department of Health on May 26 quarantined a Canadian traveller after discovering that he had sat next to a passenger who had tested positive for the A/H1N1 virus, following a flight from the US to Hong Kong.

The man arrived in HCM City on May 24.

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 on May 26 ordered the District 1 Preventive Health Department to quarantine the Canadian man at the HCM City Tropical Diseases Hospital. Test results will be announced on May 27.

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 A/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 on May 26 from Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam.

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.

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

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

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./.