A security guard patrols a school building following its closure after an 11-year-old girl infected two classmates with the H1 N1 flu in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday.

The Health Ministry on Tuesday reported three more influenza A (H1N1) cases, one in Hanoi and two in Ho Chi Minh City – all were passengers coming from Australia, raising the country’s total to 52 as of last night.

The two in Ho Chi Minh City are a 30-year-old Vietnamese student returning from studies in Australia, on flight VN780 last Thursday to Tan Son Nhat International Airport and a 45-year-old who arrived in HCMC on the same flight, who continued home to south-central Phu Yen Province before being ordered to return to HCMC after authorities received her test results.

The HCMC health department is asking passengers who traveled on the flight to stay away from crowds and call the city health department on (08) 3 930 9981 if they have any flu-like symptoms.

The Hanoi hotline number for the Ministry of Health’s Preventive Health and Environment Department is 098 967 1115.

As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, HCMC had dealt with a total of 44 patients with the H1N1 virus including 33 people living in the city. Of the cases, 19 have recovered and been discharged from hospital.

Officials at Tan Son Nhat Airport Tuesday detected 25 passengers with high body temperatures and sent them to Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital for testing.

Also Tuesday, the Pasteur Institute in HCMC said that the blood test of a 12-year-old overseas Vietnamese, who was hospitalized in Vinh Long Province on Sunday with a cough and fever, showed had tested negative for the virus.

Vinh Long health officials will still monitor the child and the family for the next seven days.

Two people from the Mekong Delta province had also been found to have the disease by the end of Sunday, the Ministry of Health reported.

Besides Hanoi, HCMC and Vinh Long, influenza A has infected the Mekong Delta’s Can Tho City and six other provinces – Tien Giang, Ben Tre and Soc Trang provinces of the delta; Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau neighboring HCMC; and Khanh Hoa in the central region.

The infections nationwide have reached 52 as of last night including seven who have had physical contact with people coming from abroad, 29 arriving from the US, 12 from Australia, two from Canada and two others from Britain and Thailand.

People traveling from the disease hotspot areas have been asked by the health ministry to limit physical contact with others.

The ministry advised patients with the disease not to use public transport to prevent it spreading.

On Sunday, 11 more people were confirmed by the ministry to have the disease. One of them was reported in Hanoi while the 10 others were in HCMC and nearby provinces.

The H1N1 virus, which was first detected in Mexico in late March, has infected more than 52,000 people in 100 countries and territories and killed 231 people, AFP cited Monday figures from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The official WHO toll has seen a sharp rise since Friday with an extra 7,873 cases and 51 more deaths.

Source: TN, VNA