Doctors speak with gendarmes and local policemen in front of the French holiday center “Les Marmousets” in Megeve, French Alps, after 27 children from Paris were diagnosed with the H1N1 virus

Vietnam recorded five more cases of influenza A (H1N1) Saturday while 25 suspected cases entered Tan Son Nhat International Airport on the same day, according to health authorities.

The HCMC Health Department said the five tested positive during initial tests but are still waiting for results from the second round of tests.

Newswire VietNamNet reported Saturday two people who were thought to have a strain of the virus that is resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu were discharged from the hospital on Friday in good health. Their samples are still being kept for final tests at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi.

VietNamNet also reported several hospitals treating H1N1 patients have suggested the ministry pronounce patients H1N1 positive after the first positive test without waiting for secondary testing results from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi and the Pasteur Institute in HCMC.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s health authority Saturday confirmed another death from swine flu, bringing the country’s toll to 15.

The Public Health Ministry said a 63-year-old woman hospitalized with the influenza A (H1N1) virus a week ago had died in Samut Prakarn Province, just outside the capital Bangkok.

It has also said that the virus could spread to up to 30 million Thais and there could be about 1,200 fatalities if the infection continued to spread for up to three years, according to ministry forecasts.

The ministry said there were now 3,228 confirmed cases of H1N1, with six in serious condition.

In Canada, health authorities warned that pregnant women are at greater risk than the rest of the population of suffering serious complications from H1N1.

Pregnant women who contract the flu virus run the risk of premature births and miscarriage, according to Chief Public Health Officer David Butler-Jones.

Research suggests that pregnant women are not more susceptible to the influenza A (H1N1) virus, but are at a greater risk of complications if they do get infected, Butler-Jones told reporters.

He recommended that pregnant women take several precautions, ranging from following ordinary hygiene practices to “avoiding large crowds.”

Source: TN, AFP