The northern highlands province of Lao Cai has contained an H1N1 outbreak in a group of college students and teachers that arrived in the northwestern mountains from Ho Chi Minh City just over two weeks ago.

No new cases have been detected in the province since, the health ministry said on Thursday.

On August 8, participants in the field trip asked for H1N1 tests after experiencing flu-like symptoms on their return to the town of Lao Cai after a trip to the resort town of Sa Pa.

Twenty-one people in the group were then quarantined in Lao Cai, while the rest of the 185-member tour headed for Hanoi. Several more tested positive for H1N1 in the capital and were then quarantined there.

On the same day, Vietnam recorded 86 other infections around the country, with the disease spreading through more schools, according to the Ministry of Health.

Thirteen schools were added to the list of flu-hit institutions Thursday: nine in Ho Chi Minh City, two in Hanoi, and two in the central highlands province of Lam Dong.

Some 2,130 people have been hit with H1N1 infections in Vietnam, resulting in two deaths. About 1,040 people are still under treatment for the virus at local hospitals.

The HCMC Red Cross launched a campaign to increase influenza A awareness throughout the city and the greater metropolitan area on Wednesday.

The campaign, which will last until September 2, aims to distribute some 225,600 leaflets at markets, supermarkets, office buildings and industrial zones in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring Binh Duong Province.

Source: Thanh Nien, Tuoi Tre