Employees of the town hall of Chenove, eastern France, wear masks during an exercise drill to prepare for the possibility of a pandemic of influenza A (H1 N1)

The threat of influenza A (H1N1) will increase this summer with more expatriate students returning to Vietnam and more foreign tourists arriving, a health official said as seven more cases were confirmed in the country.

Two cases were reported Wednesday in Hanoi and five others in HCMC, raising the country’s total to 63, with eight more potential cases pending following confirmation blood tests in HCMC.

All the new cases have flown in from overseas.

One of the two confirmed Wednesday in Hanoi, who arrived at Noi Bai International Airport last Thursday, had traveled on a public bus before being detected but could not remember which one, said Hoang Duc Hanh, deputy director of the Hanoi Health Department.

Chau of the HCMC Health Department said more than 10,000 people have been arriving at Tan Son Nhat International Airport every day and around 8,000 of them come from infected countries.

On Tuesday alone, officials at the airport had to isolate 66 passengers with high body temperatures including 30 people on the same flight from Australia.

The officials anticipated that many among them would test positive for H1N1.

A survey by the HCMC Department of Health showed that most patients detected in Vietnam so far were passengers on three international flights from Hong Kong, South Korea and Australia.

The city is where the first case was discovered on May 31 and 53 have been confirmed and treated with 39 of them being HCMC residents.

Dr. Phan Van Nghiem from the municipal health department said the flu in the city has worsened with between 30-50 suspected cases being tested every day.

The local health officials expressed concern that the testing was expensive and caused overcrowding at some hospitals that were needed to isolate the patients.

Each test costs US$150 and a person needs two blood tests, usually one at HCMC’s Pasteur Institute and another at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, for positive confirmation of the disease.

Chau suggested that lower-rated hospitals be instructed to undertake blood testing, adding that the city hospitals are prepared to admit and isolate 6,000 patients in case the flu spreads.

Nguyen Tran Hien, head of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, told the conference that the Health Ministry’s treatment method with tamiflu has proved effective as most patients have recovered and tested negative for the virus after two days.

Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Preventive Health and Environment Department under the ministry, said Vietnam has only reported influenza A infections of people coming from overseas and people who had physical contact with them.

“The flu has not become highly contagious,” Nga said.

Influenza A (H1N1) has infected 55,867 people in 108 countries and territories and killed 238 people, according to the latest figures of the World Health Organization.

Canada, Chile, Britain, China and Japan have seen a sharp rise in infections in recent days.

Source: TN, VNA