A doctor questions a student at the Ngo Thoi Nhiem High School after it was found infected with influenza A (H1N1), in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Thong Nhat Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday added 10 more to the list of medical workers found with the H1N1 virus from just four a day earlier.

Nine patients at the hospital have also been infected after having physical contact with the medical workers, hospital Director Nguyen Duc Cong told the Vietnam News Agency.

The infected doctors and nurses have been quarantined while blood samples of more than 90 people who have had physical contact with them have been taken for testing.

The entire hospital area has been sterilized and all patients given medical masks.

In Hanoi, the Doan Thi Diem Private Primary School in Tu Liem District reported its first H1N1 patient as a first grader tested positive at the National Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases on Tuesday.

The cause of the infection was not identified yet as no family member of the child had returned from overseas or had physical contact with any flu patient.

Other students of the school have been sent home until August 17, as ordered by the Hanoi Department of Education and Training.

Last Friday, the Lomonosov Private High School, also in Tu Liem District, reported its first infected student who had returned from a trip in Thailand.

Meanwhile, health authorities in the south central province of Binh Thuan said Wednesday that initial blood tests showed a 15-year-old patient, whose gender was not known, and a 39-year-old woman positive with the H1N1 virus.

The two patients are being quarantined at Binh Thuan General Hospital and their blood samples have been sent to the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City for further tests.

At a meeting Wednesday, Deputy Health Minister Trinh Quan Huan highlighted the country’s first fatality on Monday, calling on hospitals to offer better consultation for people with flu symptoms in order to prevent death because of delayed treatment.

Tran Thi Kim Loan from the central province of Khanh Hoa reportedly had flu symptoms including fever, sore throat, cough and running nose since July 25.

The 29-year-old was diagnosed with pneumonia at Military Hospital 87 on July 29 but refused the doctor’s recommendation to stay for treatment.

She returned the following day after experiencing breathing difficulties and was diagnosed with viral pneumonia. The patient was treated with Tamilflu and antibiotics and on July 31 was confirmed to have contracted the H1N1 virus.

Loan was transfered to Khanh Hoa General Hospital early Monday but died close to midnight the same day.

Huan said the patient was treated correctly according to the ministry’s instructions but only after her condition had become critical.

Nguyen Van Kinh, head of the National Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, said Vietnam should not allow H1N1 patients to be treated at home because it would mean a “very high risk of fatality.”

Nguyen Tran Hien, head of the National Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute, told the meeting that its branches and Pasteur institutes nationwide are running out of chemicals for H1N1 testing.

The supply is only enough for the next one to two weeks, Hien said.

National health authorities confirmed Wednesday nine more H1N1 patients, raising the country’s tally to 1,004, of whom one has died and 588 have recovered fully.

Source: TN, Agencies