Thailand found 21 new cases of Influenza 2009 in Pattaya

BANGKOK: -- Thailand on Thursday reported 21 new cases of the flu, all of them were discotheque staffs in Pattaya, Thai Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said.

Among the 90 samples collected from people who worked in hotel and discotheques in Pattaya, 21 of them were confirmed to be positive to the flu.

The collection of the samples were conducted after two Taiwanese who visited Pattaya were found infected by the flu when they returned home.

"All 21 cases which were found positive to the flu were staffs of a discotheque in Pattaya," he said.

He also referred to a 11-year-old student of a private school who was infected by the flu although he had no record of travelling to a foreign country like other patients.

His school suspended their classes for three days, starting today, to find the source of the flu.

Witthaya said the investigation still continued and still could not find the source.

He added that the ministry is still waiting for lab results of the boy's 13 classmates.

"About 30 teachers of the school are scheduled to return to Bangkok next week from the United States. We will also observe them," he said.

Meanwhile five more cases of the flu were confirmed on Thursday afternoon, one of them was mother of the 11-year-old infected boy.

The mother had no symptom but lab test showed that she was positive to the flu.

Another patient had no record of travelling abroad but he picked up his son who returned from a foreign country at Suvarnabhumi Airport recently.

Two other cases were a man who just returned from Singapore and a woman who visited the US recently.

The fifth was a British man who was on his way to Cambodia and made a transit at Suvarnabhumi Airport. He was found high fever and running nose. He was admitted to a hospital and lab test showed he was infected by the flu.


-- The Nation 2009-06-11

PM: 20 more flu cases in Pattaya

BANGKOK: -- Another 20 cases of A(H1N1) influenza have been found in the resort town of Pattaya, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Thursday.

The patients were all workers at entertainment places. All were now in the care of the Public Health Ministry, the prime minister said.

Health officials would examine people at major tourist attractions in both Pattaya and Phuket to get a more accurate number of how many people have so far caught the flu in Thailand.

On Wednesday, the Public Health Ministry put the number of confirmed flu cases at 16, after an 11-year-old 6th grade boy at a private school in Sam Sen area of Bangkok was found to have the flu virus.

The ministry ordered three classes at the school closed for three days and 13 other students from the school were placed under close watch after they showed flu-like symptoms.

The 11-year-old boy is the second case of human-to-human transmission confirmed in Thailand. He has not recently travelled out of the country, officials said.


-- Bangkok Post 2009-06-11


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Has anyone heard which "disco" is was in Pattaya? Depending on which one it is, one can pretty much stereotype the kinds of bars these disco goers would be at in Bangkok, and avoid them.

any information on which school ..

so now we all get paranoid about a bit of flu, in Pattaya??

Don't something like 38k people die of the flu every year in the US? So what's the new here?

I am more worried about surviving when crossing Sukhumvit on a motorbike than of ever getting bird flu or swine flu or katoey flu

This is just the start. Watch it spread like wild fire over the next few weeks. Typical example is Australia, Melbourne in particular, last week, single figures, today 1,300 plus cases and rising. The message is keep off trains, and other places where people are in close proximity.

i'm going to bangkok trip on AUG , dont know what to do.. should i cancel my trip or not.. but lets see. more careful

Bloody Farangs coming here with your desease and destroying our tourists inductry.

Another good reason to stay away from the bar girls.

Don't think to many people are paranoid mate and it's not this virus we have to worry about at the moment

But if and when it mutates and possibly mixes with H5N1 (endemic in Asia)

Thats so great. School were closed down, but no mention of which disco.

Since most of the people testes positive were the staff at disco, would not that be only common sense to name the clubs and also have them closed down for the time being or closed and properly testes if it is safe to have people in?

How awsome would that be when a club has over 500 people and all are breathing the flue, then all go to another club and spread it there, after all go back to hotel and spread some more there, then the shopping malls, movies, restaurants, then the airport.

Lets keep the clubs open and also keep the names secret.

As always, Thai government is using the backside to do all the thinking.

hear  hear, FLU not swine flu....

"How awsome would that be when a club has over 500 people and all are breathing the flue"

Not sure if you have been to Pattaya recently, but I think and 'disco' there would be lucky to have 5 guest from abroad.

We're destroying the tourist industry which we created!

you are correct, but here is the catch on flu vs. swine flu. yes, the symptoms are the same and the risk to each individual is the same. *BUT*, problem is, the possibility of this simple flu to mutate into something normal flu medicines cannot handle. the worry is not the flu, but what could possibly turn into a mutated version in which becomes such a difficult virus to contain and turns into a pandemic.

so yes, we all get the flu from time to time. but, this could turn into a situation where EVERYBODY gets the flu and our current treatments become unable to fight. thus, we have a pandemic on our hands.

90 minutes ago

The World Health Organization's (WHO) latest A/H1N1 update as of June 10, 2009 at 06:00 GMT shows 74 countries worlwide have officially reported 27,737 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 141 deaths

http://www.ubalert.com

Don't cancel your trip. Here's what to do -- get educated.

Read up on the details of A/H1N1 here by typing:

swine flu mercola

into Google and read everything on the first 2 results:

"Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact or Fiction?"

and

"Important Swine Flu Update"

This is nothing to get all worked up over, despite what the drug companies want you to believe.

well thats my trip to Patts cancelled! But maybe as I am bound to get it ( I always have in the passed) I suffer very badly.I have had the flu jab for the last 15 years and have not had it since..No flu jab for this one yet..My point is better i go get the flu there in Pattaya where they have Tami-flu to take..her in Chiang rai they do not have it! I've checked and for sure it will come up here sooner or later.......So maybe best to have a few flu parties so as to get it while you can get the medicine!!

Providing care is taken,recovery rates from H1N1 are very high.

Thais don't need farangs or swine flu to destroy the turism industry, they do a pretty good job already closing airports and having stupid protests during Songkran

Anyway, let's hope the virus doesn't mutate to something more dangerous...

Have a nice day everyone...

Not sure if you are still drunk from the night before or do not understand what disco means!!!!

Insomnia is packed 7 nights per week-can not move around
Lucifers-packed 7 nights per week
Tony's half packed 7 nights per week
Marine- at least 200 after 2.30am 7 nights per week
Mixxx-almost full 7 night s per week
B52-Same as mix

Even some of the good gogo bars are full 7 nights per week

How do i know this? i live in Pattaya and out every night!

This report from the Nation is just insane. Either the type of flu was edited out, or they are saying that these folks have the common flu or cold. Looks like another case of the hysterical media drones tripping up over themselves when trying to spread some more fear amongst the population, and to make a buck at the same time. I expect this bull crap to work in America, but not here...

Maybe the problem is that this might further affect tourism to the city. If you remember SARS, the impact on the travel industry was very high, regardless of the "limited" number of lives lost. I remember traveling to Singapore in that period, and beign the only guest in the restaurant at the Regent in Orchard. Bad luck for Pattaya.

the final drop to scare away the last h**kerrunners and blame it all on the farang as thai too poor to go to USA or Mexico anyway