Health authorities in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday reported 16 students of Thanh Binh Private High School in Tan Binh District were quarantined after many displayed symptoms of influenza A (H1N1).

Three students of the Duy Tan School in District 10 are being treated under quarantine at the district hospital while 15 others are being monitored and have been supplied with anti-flu tablets, officials said.

The makeshift hospital at the Quoc Van – Sai Gon School in Binh Thanh District is treating 87 cases, including 15 students who tested positive for H1N1.

Two of the 18 students suspected of having H1N1 in Lam Son School in District 6 on Thursday have tested positive for the disease.

The Hoa Binh School in Tan Binh District is still yet to open after all classes were closed Tuesday.

HCMC health authorities on Thursday confirmed 56 new cases to raise the city’s tally to 997 patients, including those that had been discharged from hospitals.

The management board of the Pacific Place building in Hanoi said an employee working here had tested positive for H1N1 on Wednesday.

The eighth floor of the building was closed Thursday. The building is being sterilized.

The Ministry of Health on Thursday confirmed 76 new cases nationwide, including 63 cases in the southern and four in the central regions.

Of the national tally of 1,743 so far, 651 patients are being treated. Two people have died of the virus, also known as swine flu.

The Health Ministry has also instructed private clinics to perform medical examinations for people wanting to be tested for the H1N1 virus.

Meanwhile, all those who are suspected of having the flu will receive free tests and confirmed patients are quarantined and treated free of charge.

Vaccinate kids, parents to manage flu spread: study

Putting school-aged children and their parents first in line for vaccination is medically and economically the most efficient way to nip seasonal and influenza A (H1N1) in the bud, AFP cited a study released Thursday.

Current recommendations call for vaccinating children under five as well as all people over the age of 50, noted Jan Medlock, a mathematician at Clemson University in South Carolina, a coauthor of the study which appears in the August 21 edition of the journal Science.

With supplies short, “vaccines would be better used to prevent transmission within schools and out to parents, who then spread the flu to the rest of the population,” Medlock said.

His research used a mathematical model to demonstrate cases of flu spreading in which limited vaccine doses were given to school aged children, and adults 30-39 – parents in contact with the students.

Specifically researchers looked at the influenza pandemics of 1918 and 1957.

Schoolchildren and their parents emerged as best-choice target groups to vaccinate even if a small amount of an effective vaccine is available.

The World Health Organization has announced possible shortages in the production of (A) H1N1 vaccines this year due to the slow growth of the swine-origin (A) H1N1 in chicken eggs.

Unlike seasonal flu, which usually hits elderly people the hardest, the (A) H1N1 virus has mostly infected the young.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff