Health authorities in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday quarantined six people arriving at Tan Son Nhat International Airport with high temperatures.

The city’s International Quarantine Center said the six passengers had body temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius and were being treated at the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases and Children’s Hospital No. 1.

These included three Vietnamese arriving from the US, South Korea and Malaysia; two US citizens living in the US and Taiwan; and one from Malaysia.

The center also reported 14 healthy people came to hospitals Tuesday to be examined for the disease, including some relatives of the patients.

Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Bureau for Preventive Health and Environment, Tuesday said the condition of a mother and son who had tested positive for the virus on Monday had stabilized.

Forty-one-year-old Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong and her nine-year-old son, Nguyen Hoang Huy, who had arrived in Vietnam on May 26 from Arizona became the second and third cases of swine flu in the country.

The HCMC Department of Health Tuesday said tests on Huy’s father and his two sisters were negative for the flu. They are expected to be discharged from the hospital today.

Department director Nguyen Van Chau said all three positive cases being treated in hospitals in the city have regained normal temperatures, including 23-year-old student Le Quang Tuan who had returned from the US for his summer vacation. Tuan last Sunday became the first swine flu case to be detected in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Health Tuesday called for more preventive measures against the spread of influenza A (H1N1), adding that many students studying abroad in infected zone were returning home for the summer vacation.

The families of these students should closely monitor their health for seven days after they return and inform health authorities if there is any symptom of the disease, the ministry advised.

The Vietnam Red Cross (VNRC) Tuesday held a meeting to discuss measures to prevent an outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) in the country.

Over the next two weeks, the agency will focus on raising awareness among residents by distributing nearly 100,000 leaflets, and hold workshops for provincial leaders and local health workers.

There will also be a campaign to raise awareness of the disease among locals at several border areas with China, Laos and Cambodia, which include Lao Bao in Quang Tri, Moc Bai in Tay Ninh and Mong Cai in Quang Ninh provinces.

VNRC has prepared masks, Tamilflu, specialized clothes and other equipment for their staff in case they are mobilized to tackle any outbreak of the disease.

Source: TN, Agencies