Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu (R) visits Hanoi’s first influenza A patient early June.

The Ministry of Health said Monday 17 new cases of influenza A (H1N1) have been detected over the past two days, two in Hanoi and 15 in Ho Chi Minh City, raising the country’s total so far to 123.

The ministry confirmed there has been no outbreak of the flu in the country so far. There has been no fatality and all patients quarantined at medical facilities are recovering.

The ministry also said Monday it had proposed the government set up inspection teams comprising officials from different agencies to carry out inspections and hand out instructions on tackling the virus in all localities.

As students nationwide prepare to sit for the university entrance examinations, the ministry asked them to maintain good hygiene to prevent an outbreak of the disease.

Data released by the World Health Organization Monday showed the number of recorded H1N1 flu cases since the virus was first discovered in late March has reached 70,893 worldwide, with 311 deaths.

The data indicated 11,079 new influenza A (H1N1) infections, including 48 deaths, had occurred since its bulletin last Friday.

The largest increase in caseload was reported by the US, which added 6,268 cases including 40 deaths, bringing the total number of infections to 27,717 and 127 deaths.

Canada posted a jump of 1,043 new cases, with total infections now reaching 7,775 including 21 deaths.

Australia showed an increase of 758 new cases including four deaths, bringing its total to 4,038 infections and seven deaths.

US health authorities said Friday that at least one million people in the US have had H1N1 flu, or around 50 times more than the number of cases officially reported.

The US’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) arrived at this figure based on computer models and surveys of communities known to have been hard hit by the new flu strain.

Some affected countries no longer keep track of all cases, the WHO said, while others do not report for each of the thrice-weekly bulletins.

Source: Thanh Nien