A man walks past a poster displaying a warning about the A(H1N1) flu in Hong Kong

The Ministry of Health announced yesterday it would triple the daily bonuses for health staff dealing directly with H1N1 after hospitals said they were overwhelmed by the number of patients with the virus.

In a meeting held yesterday between Ho Chi Minh City hospital representatives and ministry officials, Tran Ngoc Huu, head of the Pasteur Institute in HCMC, said the institute has detected 298 H1N1 cases so far.

With quarantines expanding, the institute has been overwhelmed by the number of tests it has had to perform, often 70 per week recently, said Huu.

He said the city could soon be facing a severe shortage of medical facilities and staff as only his institute and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) in Hanoi were allowed to officially confirm cases of the disease.

Nguyen Tran Chinh, NIHE director, said the institute had detected 170 cases out of 591 people tested.

“We’ve had to work day and night since Influenza A (H1N1) broke in Vietnam and have done more than 1,000 tests,” he said.

Tran Tinh Hien, deputy director of the NIHE, said there had been several cases in which patients showed little response to antiviral drugs oseltamivir or Tamiflu and therefore had to take double doses.

Ly Ngoc Kinh, head of the ministry’s Department of Medical Treatment, said people who showed resistance to the drugs had to remain under hospital supervision for longer periods of time as increased dosages could cause “unexpected complications.”

Hien suggested that the ministry publish guidelines about treatment methods for hospitals to use.

The ministry confirmed yesterday that Vietnam had recorded 345 H1N1 cases with 299 patients having been already discharged from the hospital.

The estimated time for treatment for one patient is between five to seven days. The ministry has requested stricter supervision at immigration check-points as it’s estimated that between 55 to 56 percent of the suspected patients have been detected there.

Singapore yesterday reported its first death linked to Influenza A (H1N1) after a 49-year-old man who was diagnosed with the virus died of a heart attack in hospital.

“He died of a heart attack, contributed to by severe pneumonia with underlying influenza A infection,” the ministry of health said in a statement.

The man, who suffered from diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, was diagnosed with the flu after he was admitted to a public hospital on Thursday, the statement said.

Singapore reported its first H1N1 case in May when a 22-year-old Singaporean woman who came back from New York tested positive for the virus.

According to the health ministry website yesterday, there are over 40 cases of confirmed Influenza A (H1N1) cases being treated at public hospitals.

In a separate case, a group of 52 British students and their teachers have been quarantined by Chinese authorities after four students tested positive for H1N1, the British Council said Saturday.

Source: TN, AFP