Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu inspected a health screening device at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in May

The Ministry of Health on Friday confirmed 17 more cases of influenza A (H1N1), all in the south, raising the country’s total to 279 without any fatality.

Chau said two others tested positive for the H1N1 virus during initial tests, but results of the second round of tests have yet to be released.

The department also said Friday that 15 people were admitted to the Pham Ngoc Thach and District 7 hospitals for testing after arriving at the city’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport with flu-like symptoms.

Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Preventive Health and Environment Department under the ministry said since the first case was discovered in Vietnam on May 31, no death has been reported while 221 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

The remaining 58 are being closely monitored and showed no sign of complications, Nga said.

Dr. Phan Van Nghiem of the HCMC Health Department on Thursday suggested residents not undergo H1N1 tests or buy the antiviral drug Tamiflu without an official request. This could prove to be a waste of money and expose residents to side effects, he said.

Humans can give swine flu to pigs: scientists

Pigs, fingered as the source of so-called swine flu, can also be infected by humans, German scientists said on Thursday, AFP reported.

The findings add a new risk factor to the global pandemic sparked by the A (H1N1) virus, they said.

Virologists from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute infected five 10- week-old pigs with the human strain of virus and housed them with three uninfected pigs.

Within four days, the three pigs had become infected and all pigs were showing flu symptoms.

But five chickens which were housed, uncaged, with the pigs in the same room did not become infected, which eases fears that the virus can pass to poultry and pick up genes from avian microbes.

The study appears in the Journal of General Virology, published by Europe’s Society for General Microbiology.

Its authors say the remarkably swift and easy way in which the three pigs became infected highlights the risk that the virus could become endemic in pig farms through people in close proximity.

Pigs are touted as a mix-and-match breeding vessels for dangerous new viruses, as they are able to simultaneously house human, avian and swine strains.

People do not have immunity to the H1N1 virus because it is new.

In its current form, though, the viral strain is relatively mild. The fear is that by mixing with other viruses, it could pick up genes that could make it more dangerous.

More than 98,000 cases of swine flu, including over 440 deaths, have occurred since the outbreak was first reported on April 24, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The epicenter of the outbreak is Mexico.

The new study points out, though, that no robust evidence has come to light to prove that pigs were to blame.

“So far, pigs or other animals have not been demonstrated to be involved in the epidemiology or spread of the novel influenza virus,” it says.

“However, with the increasing numbers of human infections, a spillover of this virus to pigs is becoming more likely.”

Source: VNA, AFP