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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