Influenza A (H1N1) Updates - 74 th victim in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Fri: After seven days with no record of deaths due to Influenza A (H1N1), today a death was registered bringing the total now to 74.

Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said the victim was a disabled 19-year-old male from Gerik, Perak.

198 new patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) symptoms had been admitted into hospital for treatment while 190 had been discharged.

"This leads to 1,104 patients with ILI being treated in 101 hospitals, including eight private hospitals, throughout the country. Of the patients being treated just 261 patients (23.6 per cent) were positive for H1N1," he said.

He said of the 261 patients tested positive for H1N1, 41 were in the intensive care unit (ICU), of which eight were new cases while six patients had been taken out of the ICU.

"Of the 41 patients in the ICU, 32 (78 per cent) had risk factors. The breakdown of the risk factors are chronic illness (13 patients), chronic respiratory illness (one), obesity (nine), children below five years (eight) and pregnancy (one)," he said.

Dr Mohd Ismail also said till now there was no vaccine in the market that could protect a person from Influenza A (H1N1) as the vaccine was being tested at the clinical stage and that Malaysia would get the vaccine as soon as it was marketed.

He said those who wanted to perform the haj or umrah were required to take the Seasonal Flu and Meningitis vaccine.

Chinese football team quarantined over swine flu

BEIJING (AP): China's football authorities may suspend the Super League after an outbreak of swine flu at one team.

Players and staff of Chongqing Lifan, including Dutch coach Arie Haan, were confined to their training base in western China after 11 players tested positive for the H1N1 virus, the newspaper Titan Sports reported Friday.

Chinese Football Association organizers are considering a series of contingencies for further outbreaks, including suspending the season, Titan said, citing association documents.

Such quarantines are usually lifted after one week if no one else tests positive for the virus. Chongqing's confinement began on Thursday, it said.

Game schedules will merely be adjusted if only one or two teams are affected, the paper said.

China has not been particularly hard hit by swine flu, although officials warn the virus is continuing to spread. A total of 6,968 cases, out of a population of 1.3 billion people, have been reported as of Thursday, none of them fatal.