Five more influenza A patients in Vietnam have completely recovered and were discharged from the hospital Saturday, raising to 13 the number of patients here who have recovered from the H1N1 virus.

Also Saturday, officials found 11 passengers at the Ho Chi Minh City Tan Son Nhat Airport arriving with body temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius. The passengers were quarantined at different hospitals in the city, pending test results.

Responding to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s appeal Friday asking the country “to try its best and take measures to prevent a flu epidemic,” local authorities organized nationwide Saturday.

Hanoi authorities in Thanh Xuan District launched exercises and drills designed to practice fighting epidemics in residential areas and launched an awareness campaign to educate people on preventing and controlling the disease.

In Lao Cai Province – home to a large tourism industry near the Chinese border – local authorities organized different educational activities to prevent an outbreak of the disease.

As of Saturday, 34,307 people around the world had been found positive for the influenza A H1N1 virus, with 163 deaths reported, according to the World Health Organization and the US Center for Disease Control.

Source: TN, VNA