HONG KONG, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Influenza A/H1N1 continued to affect Asia-Pacific region as the number of infected cases is still on the rise Friday.
Hong Kong's Department of Health said Friday that there had been 214 newly confirmed cases of Influenza A/H1N1 in the 24 hours up to 2:30 p.m. Friday.
The new cases involve 104 males and 110 females, aged between 12 months and 72 years, said the department, adding there have been 3,673 cumulative cases in Hong Kong.
Currently, a total of 46 confirmed cases are staying in public hospitals for treatment. Among them, 41 cases are in stable condition, two in serious and three in critical condition.
The number of A/H1N1 positively infected people in Indonesia has reached 495, with 276 males and 210 females, the private news portal bisnis.com quoted an official as saying on Friday.
According to the Health Ministry's data, Indonesia had new cases of 16 people consisting of 10 males and six females as of Thursday night.
They are all Indonesians. Two of them had a traveling history to Malaysia before getting sick, two had unclear histories while 12 others did not have overseas traveling history.
"So far, as of July 31 we have 495 A/H1N1 infected," said Tjandra Yoga Aditama, the ministry's director general for controlling disease and environment treatment.
Tjandra said that his ministry were ready for prevention efforts by installing thermal scanners and health alert cards, tightening surveillance and preparing referred hospitals, among others.
The ministry also conducted community surveillance, meaning that people who have rather-severe flu should report to public health centers while those who have severe flu should go to hospitals.
Sri Lankan health authorities said on Friday that two more A/H1N1 flu cases were confirmed on Thursday, bringing the total number of A/H1N1 flu cases in the country to 55.
The Epidemiological Unit of the Ministry of Health said in its latest report that the new patients have arrived from Singapore and Malaysia.
The first confirmed case of A/H1N1 flu in the island was reported on June 16. The first patient is an eight-year-old boy who is an Australian citizen. Three more relatives of his family had also been confirmed as positive cases for the infection.
Officials from the Health Ministry said there is no reason to be panic as the government has already initiated a surveillance program at the main entry point to the country, the Bandaranaike International Airport to detect possible cases of the disease coming to the country.
All arriving passengers are screened by thermal scanners installed before the immigration desk and those detected with high fever are directed to the health desk by public health inspectors attached to this point.
The government also said 20 hospitals had been identified as sentinel hospitals for pandemic influenza preparedness.
Clinical case management capacity in these hospitals had been strengthened by establishing/upgrading isolation units, supply of antiviral drug stocks, among others.
Macao reported four newly confirmed cases of Influenza A/H1N1 on Friday, bringing the cumulative number of such cases to 185 so far.
Of the 185 confirmed cases, 100 were imported while 85 were locally infected, according to the statistics from Macao's Health Bureau.
The newly confirmed cases concerned three male patients and one female patient whose ages ranged from nine to 63, the Bureau said. One of the patients was a policeman of Macao's Judiciary Police which has already reported a collective outbreak of A/H1N1 flu. But the Bureau said that the newly confirmed case was not related to the collective outbreak.
Meanwhile, some 15 patients who tested positive for the A/H1N1 flu virus were still receiving medical treatments at local hospitals, and their health conditions remained stable, the Bureau said.
