H1N1 outbreaks in Thailand's Northeast under control

BANGKOK, June 20 (TNA) - Public Health Minister Wittaya Buranasiri announced on Wednesday that recent outbreaks of the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) in Thailand's northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province have now been under control. Wittaya confirmed that his ministry's mobile medical team dispatched to the province has brought the situation under control and found that 41 people at the Nakhon Ratchasima Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital have been confirmed to have contracted the H1N1 virus, 36 of them are patients and the rest are hospital staff, but several of them have been recovering. The minister acknowledged that Thailand now has vaccine to prevent the 2009 H1N1 flu, and that about 70,000 people nationwide have been vaccinated. According to the health minister, confirmed 2009 H1N1 flu cases in Thailand have been falling since early this year, with a total of 12,594 cases recorded nationwide from January 1-June 11, most of them were in the South and there have been no reports of death so far. (TNA)