Five more medical workers in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam have shown A H1N1 influenza symptoms, raising the total suspected and confirmed cases to 28, including 16 confirmed ones, the municipal Preventive Medicine Center said today.
Of the 28 suspected cases, eight are medical workers at the Endoscopy Department of Tu Du Hospital, a major maternity institution in Vietnam, and 20 are patients at the hospital.
Last Friday, a woman from southern Tien Giang province went to the hospital for gynecological checkup.
Later on the same day, there were 23 cases of patients, their relatives and medical workers who had close contact with the woman simultaneously having high temperatures, a runny nose and sore throat. Sixteen of them tested positive for A H1N1 influenza, an acute respiratory disease.
According to the World Health Organization, the disease can be transmitted by droplets emanating from unprotected coughs and sneezes, hand contamination, and interpersonal encounters in crowded closed spaces.
Vietnam experienced an H1N1 pandemic in 2009, with over 9,000 people contracting the disease and nearly 20 deaths within four months of the year, according to its Health Ministry.
