Refugee camp closed after H1N1 cases

HEALTH AUTHORITIES are trying to control an outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) at a refugee camp in Mae Hong Son after three infections were confirmed. 
“The three patients are quarantined and we haven’t found any other cases of the disease to date,” the province’s public-health chief Dr Prasert Kitsuwannaratana said yesterday. 
Prasert said residents at the Mae La Ma Luang refugee camp in Mae Hong Son’s Sop Moei district started developing flu-like symptoms around August 14 or 15. Some of them underwent further lab tests after they showed no signs of recovery. Test results on August 21 confirmed that three residents were infected with H1N1, also known as swine flu virus. 

Prasert urged the public not to panic since this type of flu could be treated with antiviral drugs. 
He said the patients infected with H1N1 have been prescribed antiviral drugs and are quarantined where they are required to wear gloves and a facial mask.
The oldest patient is 16 while the youngest is just one year and nine months. 
“We have advised refugees to wash their hands often and wear facial masks when they leave their homes,” Prasert said. 
The Mae La Ma Luang refugee camp is home to more than 8,000 people, 51 of whom have reported flu-like symptoms recently. 
The outbreak at the camp prompted Mae Hong Son Governor Suebsak Iamwicharn to issue an urgent disease-control order on Wednesday. It prohibits officials of all charities and NGOs from entering and leaving the camp until the situation returns to normal.

The governor has also instructed the Sop Moei public health office to work with other groups to control the outbreak. As an immediate measure, acting Sop Moei district chief Wipassakorn Kitikham and the district public health office have sent a team of doctors and nurses to spray disinfectant at the field hospital, living quarters and shanty houses in the camp.
Access to the camp will be shut until September, Wipassakorn said.
Prasert yesterday urged people living in the border province of Mae Hong Son to immediately see a doctor if they had flu-like symptoms such as a high fever and headache. 
“While influenza A H1N1 is not a danger to healthy people, it can kill young children or the elderly in severe cases,” he said. 
The fatality rate is 1 per 10,000 cases. 
Thai officials are now screening people at checkpoints on the border with Myanmar, where an outbreak of Influenza A H1N1 has been spreading for the past three weeks.