Three Australian children were among six newly confirmed swine flu cases in Indonesia Sunday, bringing the country's total infections to eight.
Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said two boys aged 10 and 12 and a girl aged 14 had been on the same flight from Australia to the resort island of Bali as a 22-year-old Briton who had earlier tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus.
Three other new Indonesian cases included two relatives who had visited Singapore and a 22-year-old woman who visited Australia.
"All the six are doing fine," said Supari, adding that the Australians are now being isolated at Bali's Sanglah hospital and the Indonesians at a Jakarta hospital.
No cases had been confirmed in Indonesia until last Wednesday when the Briton and an Indonesian pilot tested positive. Both have since been discharged from hospital, Supari said.
Indonesia last week expressed concern that Australian tourists flocking to Bali's beaches are bringing swine flu into the country, which had so far avoided the worst of the pandemic.
Australia is the worst-hit country in the Asia-Pacific region with over 3,500 swine flu cases and five related deaths.
Supari said that so far there had been no cases of human-to-human transmission in Indonesia and that the country would remain vigilant.
Indonesian authorities earlier in the year increased the use of body temperature scanners at airports and imposed a ban on the import of live pigs and pork products in a bid to combat the disease, which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
The A(H1N1) influenza, which emerged in Mexico in April, has killed over 260 people worldwide and infected nearly 60,000 people in over 100 countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment