theSun | MONDAY MAY 11 2009 5

news without borders

New flu kills US man, briefs

19 respond to meningitis treatment
KUALA LUMPUR: All 19 patients warded at the Malacca

spreads to Australia, Japan

WASHINGTON: A Washington
state man with H1N1 influenza died
last week, health officials said, the
third US sufferer to die as the new
flu strain confirmed in more than
2,200 Americans appeared in Japan
and Australia.
Health officials have warned
that the true number of cases may
be underestimated. Although most
cases appear to be mild, the new
swine flu strain has killed just as
seasonal flu does.
Another 48 people have died in
Mexico and one each in Canada
and Costa Rica.
Washington state officials said
on Saturday a man in his 30s with
underlying heart conditions died last
week, state governor Chris Gregoire
describing his death as “a sobering
reminder that influenza is serious”.
The virus has moved into the
southern hemisphere, where influ-
enza season is just beginning, and
could mix with circulating seasonal
flu viruses or the H5N1 avian in-
fluenza virus to create new strains,
health officials said.
“One of the big challenges with
influenza viruses is the way that
they change, the way they combine
and their prevalence in a number
of species,” Dr Anne Schuchat of
the US Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention told a news briefing
on Saturday.
“This is why it is so important for
countries to have a strong capacity
to deal with influenza and also why
it is very important to understand
what happens at the interface be-
tween people and animals.”
Before the Washington man’s
death was announced, the CDC re-
ported 2,254 confirmed US cases of
the virus with 104 people in hospital,
up from 1,639 cases previously.
“Today there are almost 3,000
probable and confirmed cases here
in the US,” Schuchat said. “The good
news is we are not seeing a rise
above the epidemic threshold.”
Japan reported four cases, and
globally officials reported more
than 4,200 people in 30 countries
had been ill. Australia reported
its first case, a woman who been
travelling in the United States but
officials said she had made full
recovery.
“We think this virus is in most
of the United States,” Schuchat said.
“The individual numbers are likely
to be a very great underestimate.”
More Americans are seeing
doctors for influenza-like illnesses
at a time of year when such visits
usually decline.
Schuchat said tests showed they
do not all have the new H1N1 virus.
Many have seasonal flu – the H1N1
seasonal strain, the H3N2 seasonal
strain and influenza B – and other
infections.
Seasonal flu kills 250,000 to
500,000 people globally and infects
up to a third of the population each
year.
Health experts have not openly
criticised efforts by other countries
to stop the virus from getting in
– most notably China and its ter-
ritory of Hongkong, which have
quarantined travellers in contact
with patients.
A spokeswoman in Hongkong said
on Saturday that a Mexican traveller
confirmed as Hongkong’s first and
only case of the new flu strain had
been discharged from hospital.
The unidentified man, who un-
wittingly caused the confinement of
almost 300 guests and staff at a Hong-
kong hotel where he had stayed, had
been in hospital for a week.
China put seven people who had
been exposed to three Japanese
passengers diagnosed with the
H1N1 flu in quarantine, the official
Xinhua news agency quoted the
government as saying. – Reuters
Hospital for meningitis are responding positively to treat-
ment, said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail
Merican.
He said three of them were warded at the intensive
care unit (ICU) and 16 others were receiving treatment at
an isolated ward.
Ismail said a medical team comprising a medical officer
and four nurses has also been stationed at the Malacca JPJ
Academy in Tiang Dua to monitor 334 trainees.
“Anybody who showed signs or symptoms will be
referred to the Malacca Hospital for treatment,” he said in
a statement yesterday, adding that initial clinical tests on
samples revealed that the outbreak is known as Meningo-
coccal Meningitis.
Measures taken are symptomatic treatment for each
patient and referral to the hospital, Prophylaxis antibiotic
treatment for trainees, academic staff and health staff
involved, isolating patients at the hospital and the academy
as well as checking the academy’s surroundings, he said.
“Preventive and control measures will continue until
the situation returns to normal,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ismail said there is still no confirmed case
of A(H1N1) case in Malaysia except for four notified cases
which were received on Saturday and announced negative
later by the Medical Research Institute.
Japan confirms fourth swine flu case
TOKYO: A student who recently returned from North
America has tested positive for swine flu in Japan’s
fourth confirmed case of the virus, a government of-
ficial said yesterday.
The Japanese teenager was among 49 passengers
who were quarantined near Tokyo’s Narita Interna-
tional Airport following confirmation of Japan’s first
three cases of the A (H1N1) influenza virus Saturday.
Earlier, the health ministry said a teacher and two
of the student’s schoolmates, who had been on a high
school trip to Canada, tested positive for the virus.
SPCA The other passengers, whose nationalities were not
workers released by authorities, arrived in Tokyo from the US
with one city of Detroit on Friday on board the school party’s
of the dogs flight.

Animal shelter gets help to

rescue ‘banished’ dogs
by Hemananthani Sivanandam
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PETALING JAYA: Dog lovers
from several countries have sent
donations to help fund a mission
to rescue the strays that Pulau
Ketam folk had banished to the
deserted isle of Pulau Tengah.
Furry Friends Farm founder
Sabrina Yeap told theSun that do-
nations have been coming in from
throughout the world.
As of last week, RM8,000 has
been collected and she “hopes
more will come in”. The donations
– from the Netherlands, the United
States, the United Kingdom, New
Zealand and China started coming
last Monday when the issue was
highlighted in the media.
“The donors are not non-govern-
mental organisations but citizens of
those countries who feel sorry for
the dogs,” said Yeap.
She said up to last week, four dogs
had been rescued and were being
treated in private veterinary clinics.
One dog has liver failure and a bitch
had maggot-infested wounds but it has
since been discharged from the clinic.
The first dog rescued by Yeap, which
she named Hope, has also been vacci-
nated.
Remember the forlorn puppy photo-
graphed sitting on the branches? She has
been named Cleo.
All three dogs, except for the male
canine, are at their new home at Furry
Friends Farm in Kundang.
Yeap said the rescue mission which
started out with two people – blogger TV
Smith and herself – has also attracted 10
volunteers.
She said rescue missions have been
ongoing since early this month and will
continue until all the dogs dumped on
Pulau Tengah have been rescued.
“We have also promised Sungai Lima
residents of Pulau Ketam we will be tak-
ing 20 dogs from there back to the farm,”
said Yeap.
She said the team will “try to get funds
to neuter the animals in Sungai Lima and
eventually re-home them within Sungai
Lima or send them to other sanctuaries
in the country.
Meanwhile, the dogs that were res-
cued by the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) were brought
back to its headquarters last week.
Wowo and Booboo were welcomed at
their new home in Ampang Jaya for reha-
bilitation after their traumatic experience
on Pulau Selat Kering, another uninhabited
island where residents of Kampung Pulau
Ketam dumped the dogs.
A spokesman from SPCA said the dogs
were brought back on Thursday.
“Wowo is quite friendly but Booboo
they rescued
from an
uninhabited
island off
Pulau Ketam.
is still nervous and keeps barking,” she
said.
Residents of Kampung Pulau Ketam
and Sungai Lima resorted to dumping
stray dogs on uninhabited islands such as
Pulau Tengah and Pulau Selat Kering as
the dogs were a menace to them.
Acting health director of the Klang
Municipal Council (MPK) Zulkifli Abbas
told theSun that the “dog-dumping” was
initiated by the residents.
“They did it on their own initiative
without informing or consulting us.
“The fact is we did not sanction this
programme (dumping of dogs),” said
Zulkifli.
The council will be organising a
dialogue session today with the wakil
rakyat, local government councillors,
head of the relevant departments, Pulau
Ketam residents association, village head
and some NGOs.
Japanese authorities said the affected teacher and
pupils, from the western city of Osaka, and their fellow
passengers were taken to a hotel near the airport to
be isolated for 10 days. – AFP
Flu-hit Canadian farm culls 500 pigs
OTTAWA: About 500 Canadian pigs in quarantine since
the swine flu virus was detected at their Alberta, farm have
been put down, provincial authorities said Saturday.
“A limited cull of animals has eased overcrowding condi-
tions at a quarantined central Alberta pig farm where 2009
Influenza A(H1N1) virus was found to have infected a herd
of 2,200 animals on April 28,” said Gerald Hauer, the chief
provincial veterinarian.
“This was not a disease-ordered cull. This decision was
made as a result of joint discussions between the pro-
ducer, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and federal
and provincial animal health officials as the best course of
action for the welfare of the herd,” he stressed.
The rest of the herd remains under quarantine, he
said.
The number of cases of swine flu confirmed in Canada
rose to 281 on Saturday, after the country’s first A(H1N1)
death was reported a day earlier in Alberta province.
Authorities said all the new cases reported Saturday
were mild, like most of the cases to date in Canada.
A woman in her 30s from a remote area of western
Alberta province was the first person to die from possi-
ble swine flu complications in Canada, health authorities
said on Friday.
So far there have been 56 cases confirmed in Nova
Scotia; three on Prince Edward Island; two in New
Brunswick; 16 in Quebec; and 76 in Ontario; one in Mani-
toba, two in Saskatchewan; 46 in Alberta and 79 in British
Columbia. – AFP
Norway reports first confirmed cases
OSLO: Health officials announced Saturday the first
two confirmed swine flu cases in Norway, both young
adults who had recently returned from Mexico.
“A man and a women around 20 years in age tested
positive for the H1N1 virus on Saturday afternoon,”
Bjorn Iversen, a spokesman from the Norwegian
Institute of Public Health, told AFP.
A third person, who is close to one of the people
confirmed to have the virus, was also displaying “sus-
picious symptoms,” the spokesman added.
The two with swine flu were described as students
who returned to Norway on May 5 on separate flights
from a group visit to Mexico organised by their college,
only to fall ill the following day.
Iversen said they were both at home with “very
slight symptoms” that included some fever, dizzy
spells and coughing. – AFP